Criticism, Journalism ethics and AOM

I've been reviewing art shows since the beginning of the 80s decade during the last century, when I started doing so as an art student at the University of Washington School of Art.

Since then I have moved at least 25 times, lived twice in California, twice in Rhode Island, twice in Europe and twice in the Greater Washington, DC area, to highlight a few of those moves. And throughout all those years I have been involved in the arts, usually as an artist, quite often as a dealer, but always as a writer.

And as part of those experiences I have met dozens and dozens of art critics and writers who write about art, and using those experiences I feel that I can form a pretty decent and sound opinion about what I will discuss next.

Most writers who write about contemporary art shows start by physically visiting the gallery, or museum or space where the show is being held, in order to look at the artwork (I say most because I know of at least two well-known writers, one a critic for a major newspaper and one a well-known blogger, who wrote reviews as if they'd been to the shows, but it was later proven that they had never visited the space nor seen the show).

Is it the case that some reviews are being written after simply viewing an art show online? Probably, but let's say that generally speaking, most art writers and art critics (there's a difference by the way), start by visiting the space where the show is being held.

If they are lucky enough to write for a publication which pays them to review shows, they either get a flat, per review payment, or a per-word payment (usually also associated with a maximum number of words limit). Some also write the reviews for free, just to be published.

So a typical writer either (maybe even and/or):
(a) Get's a flat payment for a review - let's say $500 in our forthcoming example
(b) Get's a per word payment for a review - Let's say $1 per word with a limit of 600 words
(c) Does it for free

So let's say Billy Artsy writes for a publication which uses either (a) or (b) above, and usually Billy goes to a gallery to see a show that interests him, or is assigned to cover a new museum show. It's a little different in either case (museums usually have press previews with all kinds of packages and hand-outs and discussions and opportunities to meet the curators and/or artists and ask questions.

But in the case of galleries, Billy either drives to the gallery, or takes the subway or bikes to the gallery, arrives and enters the space. In the Greater DC area, your average gallery's group show probably has 30-35 works of art hanging by maybe 15-20 artists. Some juried competitions may have as many of 50 artists. The largest (non AOM) group show that I can recall in our region was "Seven," which I curated a few years ago for the WPA and which had 66 artists in the seven galleries of the Warehouse spaces on 7th Street. There were around 200 works of art in that show, as well as a couple of installations and several performances.

But your average gallery group show that Billy is used to seeing and reviewing and getting paid for is about 30-35 pieces of art by a dozen or so artists. That is his average reference point for a group show.

Once he arrives at the gallery, the owner or attendant recognizes Billy, gets up and greets him (heaven forbid that Billy is not recognized and treated a little special by the dealer). Depending on several variables, Billy can either be aloof or very friendly to the dealer.

Some art writers see art dealers as the "enemy," while others are mature and understand that just like the writers, the dealer is a key part of the art world universe.

Billy then spends about 15 or 20 minutes looking at the artwork, reading any press materials that he may have been handed, and taking notes on his forming opinions on the show. He may ask a question or two, or simply ignore everyone and focus all his attention on the art at hand. If Billy is especially tuned to a show, he may spend longer there, but let's say that all the artists are new to Billy and after 15 minutes he leaves.

Let's do a little Math and let's keep the numbers simple for simplicity sake. We're accelerating Billy a bit (in my own experience as a gallerist, our DC area critics hang around closer to 30 minutes per visit), but he takes 15 minutes to look at 30 works of art; this equals 30 seconds per work of art.

Later Billy submits the review, and a couple of weeks later he gets a check for $500.

A few weeks later Billy's editor emails Billy and asks Billy to do a review on Artomatic, as the editor keeps hearing about this "Artomatic thing" and getting dozens of letters (cleverly being written to the editor by the Artomatic artists) asking why the editor's newspaper hasn't covered Artomatic.

Billy takes the subway to go see AOM, as he has never really driven around SE and the AOM website tells him that the event is located in a building right on top of a subway exit.

When Billy arrives he is greeted by two volunteers who hand him material on AOM, and neither of the volunteers recognize Billy, nor he them. He asks on which floor the show is, and the volunteers suggest that Billy start on the 9th floor and work his way down. Billy finds it hard to believe that there are nine floors of art.

Billy takes the elevator to the 9th floor and comes out to face yet another volunteer sitting on a desk by the elevators. The volunteer smiles at Billy, but does not recognize him.

Billy begins walking the 9th floor. Already, on this floor alone, is the biggest group show that Billy has ever been to; it hasn't hit Billy yet, but soon he'll realize that there are eight more floors to go.

Billy is a little overwhelmed from the very beginning, and because of the large number of artwork and artists, he comes across a lot of what he considers really bad art: lots of tasteless nudies, loads of unsophisticated beginner art, terrible portraiture including more boudoir portraits in one place that Billy has ever seen in his life.

Billy is seeing a lot of the type and level of artwork which Billy has never seen and most probably would never see in the galleries that Billy tends to favor.

Because of the way the artists' booth are, Billy started (pre-conditioned from his many gallery visits) by weaving a sine wave walking pattern around the gallery walls and working his way around the floor and looking at each artist's gallery individually.

An hour later Billy realizes that he's not even three quarters of the way through the 9th floor and he still has 8 more floors to go.

And so Billy begins to (as humans do) adapt to the sheer size of the art show in front of him, and begins to speed up a little. He no longer visits each artist's gallery wall, but walks at a fast clip between the walls and glancing from the middle left and right covering 8-10 artists at a glance and only pausing to look at the work a little closer if something catches his eye from afar.

He begins to miss details and also misses entire groups of artists. When he walks by the Barbies, he doesn't realize that there are multiple artists in that set of Barbie artwork. He also misses the nuances of David D'Orio's wonderfully minimalist glass sculptures of recycled materials. As he makes the turn into a new aisle, his speeded up sightseeing is directed to one side at that moment and he completely misses Rania Hassan's deceptively complex marriage of painting with 3D sculpture.

By the time Billy finishes the 9th floor, he's sure of four things:

(a) no way that he can cover nine floors of art in this one visit unless he speeds up considerably.
(b) most of the work in the show is dreck.
(c) his notes are all from the first hour on the floor
(d) None of these artists are really good enough to show in a gallery and that's why they are here.

He walks down to the 8th floor, where the AOM floor attendant smiles at him, but once again does not recognize Billy.

He is now in full speed mode; if the artist's work doesn't grab Billy from ten feet away, forget it. At this point all that Billy is seeing are robots, skulls and a lot of bad photos of nude women, plus an annoying huge number of bad portrait artists. he is also missing a lot of intelligent, good art, a lot of it.

And then Billy is recognized by an AOM artist, and to Billy's dismay the artist wants to make sure that Billy sees his work. Billy promises to swing by, but in a nice way tells the artist that he is busy and needs to move on.

There's a small crowd of people in front of Deb Jansen's amazing revenge installation on this floor, and Billy, attracted by the crowd, slows down to see what the fuss is all about. He is hypnotized by what Jansen has done and Billy makes some notes about this installation. It's the first time that he has stopped to actually look at work closely on the 8th floor. Had not there been a crowd in front of Jansen's installation, Billy would have missed it as well.

Fifteen minutes later Billy has finished his whirlwind walk through of the 8th floor. It still took him half an hour, and in that 30 minutes he has "reviewed" about 100 artists and about 2500 works of art. He has completely missed the work of nearly a dozen artists on this floor who are already in the collection of major museums and represented by galleries all over the US and Europe. Blue chip artists in a plebian art show.

He also misses several "new" artists who will soon move on to galleries, museums and other such high art places.

By this time Billy's mind is made up. Nothing in the remaining seven floors can save AOM from the wrath of Billy's review.

He debates if it is even worth it for him to look at the rest of the show, but Billy's ethical side wins out and he descends to the 7th floor, where he is greeted by yet another floor attendant who doesn't know Billy from her aunt Elvira.

Billy finishes the 7th floor in 15 minutes, a new floor record. He only stops to glance at the glass displays by the British Sunderland artists because the displays caught his eyes as very "gallery like." The professional-looking displays put Billy in his comfort zone.

But he has already been at AOM for over two hours and has only seen three floors.

He debates skipping the six other floors, and "just to be fair," decides to pick one more floor at random, to "see if anything is different."

He decides on the 5th floor. By now it's getting a little into the evening and Billy is surprised at to how many people are viewing the show. Billy has never seen more than a couple dozen people in an art show at any time in any gallery, and even on the rare openings that he goes to, not more that 30-40 people in at once.

At AOM Billy sees hundreds and hundreds of people pouring in, and the elevators are getting crowded and slow and a tired Billy has to wait for an elevator to take him down.

On the ride down Billy decides on the 3rd floor and gets out. He sort of glances around and tries to absorb the entire floor from the edge of the elevators' entry points.

Billy decides to pack it and go home to write his review of Artomatic. He has seen more artwork in the last three hours that he has all year round. Most of it quite forgettable to Billy, atrocious even. In the process he has also missed seeing more artwork than most critics see in a year. And his visually overloaded mind has not seen the truly outstanding work of dozens and dozens of new and established good artists.

But Billy will write a review about the entire show, including the 700 plus artists whose work Billy never saw. Had Billy known about the scope of this huge show, Billy would have studied the artists' list ahead of time and highlighted the well-known artists whom Billy has already reviewed in the past, when they showed in the galleries that Billy frequents. That way Billy covers his own review foot prints.

But Billy missed them, and he's about to carpet bomb the entire show, including artists who Billy actually likes and whose gallery shows he has reviewed in a positive light.

Billy goes home and he is tired. Because it is now rush hour the subways are crowded and by the time Billy gets home, he is exhausted, both physically and mentally overloaded.

A couple of glasses of wine from a wine box helps Billy to relax a little as he sits in front of his laptop and Googles the web to see what other critics have written about AOM. After all, Billy wants to ensure that he is aligned with his elder critics and with the faddish new ones from the art blogs.

Almost to a man (woman) they all write bad things about AOM's artwork. What Billy doesn't realize is that many of them saw AOM in the same manner that Billy did. Some of them have never even visited AOM, but they still trashed it.

Billy revs up his trendy Mac and begins to earn his $500, which is what he would have been paid if he just went and had reviewed a "regular" gallery show, with maybe one artist's solo or a dozen artists' group show.

Billy trashes AOM, lest he be ever asked to do that much work again.

When the review is published, Billy's editor is surprised by the large outpouring of hate letters and emails and comments about the review. They come mostly from AOM artists, disgusted with Billy's review of the show. But they are unaware that they're about to help with Billy's career at the paper.

Billy's editor is pleased to discover that Billy has so many readers; after all, a letter is a letter, and Billy's AOM review column has received more letters and comments than all of Billy's previous columns added together.

This becomes a good checkmark on Billy's record with his editor. Who knew that Billy's gallery review column had some many followers?

Billy is pleasantly surprised by the positive outcome of an otherwise exhausting event.

Sometimes it bothers Billy to recall that he never really saw all the work in the manner that it deserved, but he does a little Math and he feels better when he discovers that in order to review AOM in the way that he reviews all other art shows, he would have had to spend a dozen hours there just to give each artist about 3/4 of a minute. That's an impossible task, if you ask Billy, especially for a measly $500 bucks.

That makes Billy sleep better at night and feel like he's still an ethical writer.

Milgrom on Morandi

Giorgio Morandi is one of those artists that either wows you or bores you to sleep, depending on your own artistic sensibilities and background. Chances are that OCDers will like Morandi.

I love his work because it shows persistance and enviable skill.

It is clear to the most casual observer, that the Greater DC region has become a Mecca and center point for fine arts glass, possibly second only to the other Washington. But what has become more and more clear to me lately, is that DC region is also becoming a hot spot for terrific and innovative ceramic wunderkinds of all ages.

And one of the most hardworking ceramic-focused galleries in the region is Cross MacKenzie in Georgetown, led by the very fair and hardworking Rebecca Cross MacKenzie, herself quite a talented and highly collected ceramic artist.

Rebecca has been working very hard with her gallery space in Canal Square in Georgetown (home to the best 3rd Friday openings in the Mid Atlantic by the way), and between her gallery and Red Dirt Studio, and many other artists' studios around the capital region, DC is making waves in the ceramic art world.

And with a gallery reception on June 19, from 6-8PM, Rebecca brings what I think will be a must-see exhibition for ceramic fans, and definitely for Morandi fans: Milgrom on Morandi!

The two recent Morandi exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at the Phillips Collection in Washington offered DC area artist Lilianne Milgrom (whose show at the Katzen I reviewed here) the opportunity to absorb the paintings by the Italian master. She studied and learned from the subtle variations in the paintings and the abstract geometric forms used in his compositions.

"In an attempt to enter Morandi's intimate world, I chose to recreate a selection of his iconic painted objects in three dimensional form. This allowed me the freedom to interpret his familiar objects in 'real time," says Milgrom.

Don't miss this show!

Stimulus Opens tomorrow night Nevin Kelly

In recognition of the challenging economic times, DC's Nevin Kelly Gallery, located at 1400 Irving Street, NW, #132, will showcase “Stimulus,” a group exhibition of works by more than twenty DC area artists at limited-opportunity prices.

The gallery has selected, a Tuesday evening (June 16), typically a slow night for galleries and other businesses, for the opening reception. Joining in the celebration, several local restaurants and other business will offer their own stimulus packages on opening night.

Show runs June 16 through July 11, 2009; Opening Reception, Tuesday, June 16 from 5:30 - 8:30 pm.

All works will be priced at $500 or less and for works over $100, there will be a limit of 3 works per artist.

Participating artists include: JOHN M. ADAMS, SONDRA N. ARKIN, JOAN BELMAR, TANJA BOS, ANNE BOUIE, MOLLY BROSE, MARY CHIARAMONTE, ANNA U. DAVIS, JENNY DAVIS, THOMAS DRYMON, STIRLING ELMENDORF, PAT GOSLEE, EMILY GREENE LIDDLE, LAUREL HAUSLER, J. FORD HUFFMAN, ROSALIND KENNEDY, MARK PARASCANDOLA, ANNELIESE SULLIVAN, MING YI SUNG ZALESKI, RUTH TREVARROW, CLAUDIA VESS, ELLYN WEISS and yours truly.

Local restaurants Commonwealth Gastropub, Pete's New Haven Style Pizza and Rumberos are offering dinner specials for the Stimulus audience on the night of the opening.

Radiance MedSpa, a neighborhood day spa, is also offering specials, and other local businesses are expected to sign up. Interested individuals can check the gallery's website for more information on participating businesses and their special offers.

The gallery is located half-a-block from the Columbia Heights Metro station on the Green Line, and all participating businesses are within a block or two of the Metro station.

See ya there!

Trimpin

“TRIMPIN: the sound of invention” is a film that is screening at SILVERDOCS. The subject of the film, artist/inventor/engineer/composer Trimpin (he only uses his surname) has never been represented by a gallery, a dealer, or a manager, and doesn’t have a cell phone or a website – yet his freewheeling sculptures and outrageous musical experiments are cherished by artists, musicians, and museums all over the planet.

Below is some more info about the film and the trailer and clips. The film is screening on:

Thu, Jun 18 at 6:00pm - Round House Theatre and Sat, Jun 20 at 10:45 AM - AFI Silver Theater 2.

Trimpin will also be creating one of his mini-installations at the festival for people to check out.

DC Sktecher's AOM Top 10

DC Sketcher takes on my Artomatic top 10 challenge and sends me his/hers favorites:

Mei Mei Chang- 7th floor
Jessica Van Brakle- 9th floor
Jenny Walton- 9th floor
Dan D'Orio- 9th floor
Laurel Lukaszewski- 8th floor
Christian Tribastone- 9th Floor
Kelly Towles- 1st floor/Electric Stage
Meinir Wyn Jones- 5th floor
Andrea Roberson- 8th floor

I spent almost three hours last Saturday walking and checking out the 9th and 8th floor and some of the above are also on my list so far... but I have a lot of floors and artists still to see.

More on that later, and more on my thoughts why most art writers and critics are just ill prepared to write a review or commentary of something of the sheer scale of AOM and why they take the easy way out and throw away their journalistic ethics when they physically give up and trash the show rather than actually review it the same way that they would any other art show.

The answer lies in the time that it would take to write a fair review in proportion to what they are getting paid to write a review (quite probably the same as a gallery show that they can visit and form a good critical opinion in less than 15-20 minutes) rather than the multiple hours that it would take to do a fair assessment of AOM.

Capitalism strikes again in the otherwise progressive ranks of art criticism.

Kahlophiles of the World, Unite!

Just finished going though nearly 200 entries for the Finding Beauty In A Broken World: In the Spirit of Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Farm in Washington, DC.

Tanya Gramatikova, Tribute to Frida Kahlo II
There were entries from all over the world, once again reaffirming Kahlo's spectacular worldwide appeal, and once again I was not only honored but also stunned by the diversity and variety of work submitted.

The Opening Reception & Awards are Friday, July 17, 2009, 5:30 - 8:00PM. Don't you dare miss it. Come by and introduce yourselves and say hello. This exhibition runs July 1 - August 29, 2009. Gallery hours: Wednesday - Friday, 11am - 5pm, Saturdays, 11am-3pm, and by appointment.

See ya there!

Recession Creeps Up on Basel

"All the headlines that the market is back are just wrong,” said one dealer.

Details here.

Opportunities for Artists

Deadline: August 26, 2009

Exhibitions of works rejected by a gallery. Have you ever had a gallery reject your work because it was too innovative, too modern or too ‘out there’? Exhibition Opens on Sept 4, 2009.

Red Studio wants it! To enter please go to www.redstudio.org.

Works in any media such as painting, sculpture, music, mixed media, installation, design, poetry, functional art, etc.

Do this tomorrow

Saturday, June 13 from 7-9 pm is "Meet the Artist Night" at Artomatic.

Go walk the show and absorb the creative energy of a few hundred artists and creative minds all in one place.

This will be good for you; listen to the Lenster.

What Makes a Piece of Craft Art Truly Extraordinary?

Find out what Robyn Kennedy, Chief of the Renwick Gallery, Chris Shea, metal artist and blacksmith, Michael Janis, Co-Director of the Washington Glass School, and Binnie Fry, independent curator and art consultant.

Sun Jun 14 - 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
James Renwick Alliance Education Room (4th Floor)
55 M Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003

How to land a job in the art sector

Women Opening Doors for Women (WODW) was founded 20 years ago around a kitchen table, when women came together to help each other achieve professional success.

Join their Arts and Culture Network as they discuss how to land a job in the art sector.

Fields to be discussed include interior design, art teaching, and graphic design. Speakers will share their own personal experiences, discuss challenges that they have faced, and offer tips on how to be successful in their chosen field.

Speakers: Mukti Desai, Senior Graphic Designer at AAUW (American Association of University Women) and owner of Nectar Design Studio; Susan Dorsey, Head Designer at Ethan Allen; Erin Kelly, Art Teacher and Advisor with Youth Engagement Academy, DC Public Schools.

When: Thu. June 18, 2009

Host: Alicia Daly

Location: Capitol Hill (at The Stewart Mott House). Location is accessible via the Capitol Hill Metro and 36 and 39 buslines.

Planners: WIN Arts and Culture Network Chairs: Caitlin Jennings, Alicia Cohen, and Kate Hewlings.

Congrats!

Reston artist Christine Lashley won the Top Prize at the Riverbend Park Annual Paintout Competition last week.

At Riverbend Park's 4th annual 'plein-air' juried painting competition this past Saturday, Restonian Christine Lashley won the Best in Show prize for her oil painting "High Water." Artists from around the area competed for cash awards thanks to the generosity of Jan and Dan Laytham of Long and Foster Realtors, Great Falls, VA.

Paintings produced for the paintout must have been started and completed in their entirety on the day of the paintout between the hours of 5:30AM and 12:30PM. The freshly created artwork was judged by Armand Cabrera. Mr. Cabrera mentioned that he loved the Riverbend paintout as it was "the only 'true plein-air' competition on the East Coast" because there was no time for artist's to edit the morning's painting later, unlike other paint competitions that can last several days.

All the artwork created will be on display at the Visitor's Center from June 9 - June 20, 2009. A portion of proceeds from the art competition benefit the Friends of Riverbend Park (a non-profit group supporting the park). The park's staff and Artist in Residence, Jack Warden (the show's coordinator) hope that the competition will raise awareness about the park and all the beauty it has to offer.

Christine Lashley enjoys painting on-location in the ‘plein air’ style for a direct response to a scene. Lashley says "I interpret what I see through my passion for color. If I can capture the light in the landscape it will set the mood and convey a strong impression of the scene; much more that a 100% accurate representation could."

2009 International Arts Journalism Institute in the Visual Arts

I'll be participating in a discussion panel this coming June 20th at the 2009 International Arts Journalism Institute in the Visual Arts, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. State Department and hosted by American University.

More later...

AOM this Saturday

I plan to visit AOM this Saturday, stand by for news!

Lomuto on Tate

Susan Lomuto on Tim Tate:

Tate’s sculptures ask you to surrender your guarded self and feel the range of emotions that they provoke. His newest works - larger and more complex - speak to universal issues, a shift from earlier work that was profoundly personal.

Read Daily Art Muse here.

Judkis on AOM

Artomatic isn’t about finding the diamond in the rough: Think cubic zirconia instead. Each spring brings the polarizing art-for-the-masses show, and this year's event features more than 1,000 visual artists (and another 600 performers). With nine floors of art displayed science-fair style in an unoccupied office building near the Nationals’ stadium, the offerings can be overwhelming. But for the serious art aficionado, how many of those 1,000 artists are worth seeing? We’ve capped that number at a strict 0.005 percent.

Read Maura Judkis on Decider DC here.

Stimulus at Nevin Kelly

In recognition of the challenging economic times, DC's Nevin Kelly Gallery, located at 1400 Irving Street, NW, #132, will showcase “Stimulus,” a group exhibition of works by more than twenty DC area artists at limited-opportunity prices.

The gallery has selected, a Tuesday evening (June 16), typically a slow night for galleries and other businesses, for the opening reception. Joining in the celebration, several local restaurants and other business will offer their own stimulus packages on opening night.

Show runs June 16 through July 11, 2009; Opening Reception, Tuesday, June 16 from 5:30 - 8:30 pm.

“We invite the public to come stimulate their minds and the local economy by supporting this exhibition,” says gallery owner Nevin J. Kelly. “While they are in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, we encourage them to take advantage of the specials being offered by some of our neighboring businesses.”

Kelly explains that “the concept and the name of the show are somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the show has a serious side. In times like these, arts and artists tend to suffer disproportionately, and we are trying to remind people, by parodying the government's broader stimulus efforts, that local artists and local businesses need their support.”

Participating artists have been asked to price their works for this exhibition at least 15% below their norm. The gallery has agreed to reduce its standard commission to make up part of the difference. All works will be priced at $500 or less. For works over $100, there will be a limit of 3 works per artist. Kelly explains that limiting the number of works by each artist protects the concept of limited opportunity pricing and helps guard against an overall deterioration of the artists' price-points, “an important consideration for collectors,” he says, adding “if you want a work by one of your favorite artists at these prices, you need to buy it before somebody else gets it.”

Participating artists include: JOHN M. ADAMS, SONDRA N. ARKIN, JOAN BELMAR, TANJA BOS, ANNE BOUIE, MOLLY BROSE, MARY CHIARAMONTE, ANNA U. DAVIS, JENNY DAVIS, THOMAS DRYMON, STIRLING ELMENDORF, PAT GOSLEE, EMILY GREENE LIDDLE, LAUREL HAUSLER, J. FORD HUFFMAN, ROSALIND KENNEDY, MARK PARASCANDOLA, ANNELIESE SULLIVAN, MING YI SUNG ZALESKI, RUTH TREVARROW, CLAUDIA VESS, ELLYN WEISS and yours truly.

Local restaurants Commonwealth Gastropub, Pete's New Haven Style Pizza and Rumberos are offering dinner specials for the Stimulus audience on the night of the opening.

Radiance MedSpa, a neighborhood day spa, is also offering specials, and other local businesses are expected to sign up. Interested individuals can check the gallery's website for more information on participating businesses and their special offers.

The gallery is located half-a-block from the Columbia Heights Metro station on the Green Line, and all participating businesses are within a block or two of the Metro station.

See ya there!

Today's hero

They have been demonized by an art blogger whose reputation and popularity rests mostly on destructive criticism of nearly everything related to the artworld, and someone who has never had to guard anything in his life, but today's hero in the museum world, and the nation in general, is a DC museum security guard.

He is US Holocaust Museum security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, who gave his life protecting others, shot by a Jew-hating artist, James Wenneker von Brunn.

Mr. Johns, we all thank and salute you, and all of you who stand as the first line of defense against all the would-be killers and haters in the world. You and your fellow security guards at the Holocaust Museum, and all other museums and security points in the nation, deserve our respect and gratitude.

This is from the Holocaust Museum:

Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns died heroically in the line of duty today. There are no words to express our grief and shock over these events. He served on the Museum's security staff for six years. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Officer Johns' family.

We have made the decision to close the Museum tomorrow in honor of Officer Johns, and our flags will be flown at half mast in his memory.

Rest in Peace... Fair winds and following seas Sir.

Museum Shooting Suspect Details

The man suspected of walking into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and opening fire Wednesday has a long trail of vitriol and vindictiveness.

According to the AskART Web site, which features the work of James W. von Brunn, he was born in St. Louis on July 11, 1920. The birth date jibes with real estate records of a James W. von Brunn who lives in Maryland. He is listed as living in either Annapolis or Easton.

Details from NPR story here and here.

President Obama issued the following statement in regards to the shooting:

"I am shocked and saddened by today's shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world.

"Today, we have lost a courageous security guard who stood watch at this place of solemn remembrance. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends in this painful time."

AOM video

When I used to live in DC I used to be a talking head in MHZ TV's Artsmedia News program, directed by my good friend Harry Mahon.

Harry currently has the very cool video of AOM below.

Goodwill

Two paintings left overnight in a Goodwill donation bin in Toronto sold at auction for over $150,000 Canadian samolians (US$136,480).

Details here.

Art town: What’s brewing in lesser-known hot spots

Land as canvas: Albuquerque offers a full palette of art al fresco

By Robin Tierney

Art devotees know the way to Santa Fe, usually bypassing Albuquerque to the south. But expect that to change as ABQ creatives hasten urban and urbane renewal in New Mexico’s biggest city.

The art community there bears resemblance to the five dormant volcanoes that flank the city’s west side: smoldering disparate vents likely to become an inextinguishable force once erupting.

Signs suggest that time is drawing near, with art-centric events now erupting within and beyond ABQ’s revitalized Downtown arts district. New trolley, bus and rail choices make it easy to speed around.

At nearly every turn, there’s some gallery or mural or piece of public art. Nary a day goes by without an exhibition opening or art talk or sighting of artists at work on an installation, particularly with the “LAND/ART” collaboration that in early June unleashed a six-month tsunami of land-based art.

LAND/ART is a sprawling mega-variety show aiming to lay siege to senses and sensibility. Among the five dozen participants is Guggenheim Fellow Michael Berman, whose photos emanated from solitary wanderings through the desert. Basia Irland’s frozen carved books sow seeds as they melt in undernourished rivers. DJ Spooky weaves an acoustic portrait from field recordings made during journeys into Antarctic icescapes. Lynne Hull builds outdoor sculptures that double as wildlife habitat rescues.

A sense-shocking, mind-boggling array of photography, sculpture and mixed media burbles from downtown galleries such as 516 ARTS as site-specific installations emerge on the sacred lands ringing Albuquerque like an aura.

I plan to catch what’s taken root in LAND/ART when returning for another Albuquerque alt. art event: the GO! Arts Festival. The free downtown event runs Sept. 25-27. Several stages of local music and dance combine with contemporary art, making for a complete sensory assault.

Go! artists include Brandon Maldonado, whose “Los Fantasticos” paintings nabbed Best of Show at last year’s fest, and Daniela and Vladimir Ovtcharov, whose modern icons and other imaginaria are absolutely arresting.

The edgier visuals and vibe distinguish Albuquerque from other New Mexico artspots, says Christopher Goblet on the arts-boosting Downtown Action Team.

Now’s a good time to visit what “The Rise of the Creative Class” author Richard Florida dubbed the "Most Creative Mid-Size City." The arts offerings are diverse: Harwood Art Center (an old school) displays art from full-timers to homeless shelter denizens; Darryl Willison’s trippy comic cowboys color the walls at Old Town’s KISS café; Working Classroom’s new downtown space mounts eye- and brain-teasers from city kids. A new film festival’s set to debut late summer. And there’s always the green and red chile.

If you must go to Santa Fe, the brand new Rail Runner stops in downtown ABQ.

LAND/ART event guide (sites, openings, talks): www.landartnm.org

Go! Festival info: www.wwwdowntownabq.com/GO

Albuquerque visitors info: www.itsatrip.org

The Bethesda Painting Awards announced

The top four prize winners were announced last Wednesday evening during the exhibition’s opening at the Fraser Gallery, but I just found out today who the winners were.

Camilo Sanin, Composicion 4
Camilo Sanin from Jessup, MD was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; Heidi Fowler of Reston, VA was named second place and was given $2,000; Magnolia Laurie of Baltimore, MD was awarded third place and received $1,000, and Lillian Bayley Hoover of Baltimore, MD was given the “Young Artist” award and received $1,000. Congrats to all the winners.

The eight artists selected as finalists are:

Steve Adams, McLean, VA; Heidi Fowler, Reston, VA; Lillian Bayley Hoover, Baltimore, MD; Jeff Huntington, Annapolis, MD; Magnolia Laurie, Baltimore, MD; Katherine Mann, Baltimore, MD; Greg Minah, Baltimore, MD and Camilo Sanin, Jessup, MD.

Entries were juried by Ruth Bolduan, Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Richmond; Patrice Kehoe member of the University of Maryland’s Art Department since 1977 and John Winslow, a Washington, D.C.-based painter and emeritus professor of art at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Perhaps it is just me, but it seems that the Best in Show winner is chanelling the Washington Color School painters. I do quite like Lillian Bayley Hoover's work.

Opening reception for the exhibit is this Friday, June 12th, from 6-9pm at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda.


Lillian Bayley Hoover, War TV

Doesn't make sense to me

The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation has been sending the below email to its 2009 interested parties:

Thank you so much for your recent inquiry to the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation regarding grant opportunities to individuals working in the arts.

The current, virtually unprecedented economic crisis has hit small nonprofit arts foundations such as ours especially hard. At this time, we cannot sustain the level of giving that we offered in years past. We have received an overwhelming number of inquiries and are not equipped at this time to process and, in all fairness, grant sufficiently in proportion to so many new potential new applicants. The Vogelstein Foundation will NOT be holding an open call for new applications this year; instead, our 2009 call for applications will be an invitational for prior grantees only.

The 2010 call for artists remains to be determined. Please reply to this e-mail if you wish to be added to the distribution list we will maintain for updated 2010 information as it becomes available. (Note: If your e-mail address changes later on, but in the interim, please contact us to let us know

Again, we thank you very much for your interest and wish you all the best in your artistic endeavors going forward.

Diana Braunschweig, Exec. Dir.

Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation
LVF@earthlink.net

Postal mailing address :
LVF, Inc.
4001 Inglewood Ave., Suite 101-309
Redondo Beach, CA 90278

While we all applaud the terrific presence and influence that foundations such as this one contribute to the art world, it doesn't make sense to me that their "2009 call for applications will be an invitational for prior grantees only."

If you ask me, that's a little backwards.

Congrats!

VMFA curator John Ravenal has been elected president of the Association of Art Museum Curators. (Photo by Travis Fullerton, © 2009 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

The Association of Art Museum Curators today announced the election of John Ravenal of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as its fourth president.

“John Ravenal is both a distinguished curator and a respected member of the larger museum community; we are fortunate to have him as our next president,” says Sally Block, executive director of the AAMC. Ravenal is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at VMFA, a position he has held since 1998.

“I’m honored to take on the leadership of the foremost professional organization for art museum curators in the United States,” says Ravenal. “I look forward to working with the AAMC board to continue promoting and supporting the role of curators. Our profession is now more important than ever as we maintain the artistic vision of the museums we serve and engage ever broadening audiences.”

Prior to joining the VMFA curatorial staff, Ravenal was associate curator of 20th-century art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Congrats!

After successfully completing their first year of artist-centric programming, Hamiltonian Artists has announced the five new, distinguished Hamiltonian Fellows for 2009 to join their existing Fellows. Congratulations to:

· Jon Bobby Benjamin (BA, Brandeis University)
· Magnolia Laurie (MFA, Mount Royal School of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art)
· Katherine Mann (MFA, Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art)
· Jonathan Monaghan (MFA Candidate, University of Maryland)
· Lina Vargas De La Hoz (MFA, Art University Linz, Austria)

On Saturday, June 20, 2009, at 7pm, Hamiltonian Gallery will open an introductory group exhibition of these five new Fellows. Each artist will be displaying the work with which they were accepted. The exhibition will run from June 20 - August 1, 2009.

The five new 2009 So-Hamiltonian Fellows were selected from a pool of over 180 applicants this year, up from 130 applicants the previous year.

Michael Janis: AOM Top 10

It has been a tradition of this blog for many years to publish various AOM Top 10 lists as they are sent in by anyone and everyone who wants to send one. In the past these Top 10 Artomatic lists have even resulted in gallery shows for the mentioned artists.

So start sending me your Top 10 Artomatic picks this year; meanwhile, below is Michael Janis' top 10:

Megan Van Wagoner Level 8 mixed media

David D'Orio Level 9 wall mounted glass sculpture

Theresa Easton Level 5 print & books

Matthew Langley Level 2 painting

James Halloren Level 9 painting

Sarah Blood Level 5 neon/ceramic

Carin Quinn Level 3 painting

Mark Tolson Level 7 painting

Drew Graham Level 2 wall sculpture

Peter Chang (the Document collaborative) Level 2 mixed media

Really selling well!

Campello Pinot Grigio is available practically everywhere, most notably at Trader Joe's in those non fascist states where supermarkets can sell wine.

Reviews and comments here. For around six or seven bucks it has been getting rave reviews!

Keep buying!

Opportunity for DC Artists

Deadline: Wednesday July 8th at 5:30pm

DC Creates! invites artists from the DC Metro area to submit works available for purchase. Selected works will be added to the Art Bank Collection.

Over 2,000 works are displayed in DC Government building corridors, conference rooms and office space and all open to the public.

Application deadline: Wednesday July 8th at 5:30pm.

To obtain a copy of the application, visit www.dcarts.dc.gov

For assistance in preparing your application DC artists can attend a workshop on Wednesday June 24 from 7-8:30pm at Artomatic - 55 M Street, SE; Washington D.C.
(By Metro - The building is located atop the Navy Yard Metro Station; Ballpark exit).

This is a terrific opportunity - don't blow it!

Dawson on Foon Sham

The WaPo's freelance gallery critic Jessica Dawson has a great review of Foon Sham's latest work.

Read Dawson here.

Barlow and O'Sullivan on AOM

Terrific article in the WaPo on Artomatic from Michael O'Sullivan, who cleverly uses Phillip Barlow's intimate knowledge of the DC area art scene to deliver some brilliant AOM tips.

Read it here.

Congrats!

To DC's own hoogrrl, who has been appointed to be a DC Arts Commissioner!

That is the perfect pick! Go get them PH!

Wanna go to a Bethesda opening tomorrow?

Artists' Websites: Susan Lamont

Susan Lamont's technical virtuosity is easily evident in her work as is the deep intellectual seed that germinates in nearly all of her work. Check it out on level two of Artomatic.

He Searched the Room For Her Auburn Hair © 2009, oil on linen, 40" x 50"
Check out her website here.

Best pizza in America

I've been searching for the best pizza in the United States since my teens, when a slice of pie was a quarter and there were a dozen pizza places along Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn.

Best pizza that I ever tasted was in Sicily, and the worst one was in London.

Best pizza in America is at Little Anthony in Media, PA.

Anthony is a Napolitano, and his pizzas are amazing, especially the garlic white pizza. His is the best pizza that I have ever eaten in the US.

Best pizza in the South?

Andrea's Pizza, located in the Riverdale Shopping Center off West Mercury Blvd in Hampton, Virginia.

Oportunidad para artistas

Deadline: July 13, 2009

NALAC Fund For the Arts offers funding to Latino arts organizations and to Latino artists for the creation and presentation of work, as well as career development. Funding available for the following disciplines: Visual Arts, Dance, Interdisciplinary Arts, Literary Arts, Media Arts, Music, Performance Art, and Theater Arts.

Funding for the one-year grant period (runs from Nov. 1, 2009-Sept. 30, 2010) is up to $10,000. Application deadline: July 13, 2009. For more information, contact:

NALAC Fund for the Arts
Grant Program Manager
1208 Buena Vista St.
San Antonio, TX 78207

Phone: (210) 432-3982; email: grantmanager@nalac.org; or check website: www.nalac.org.

Art advice for the Obamas

Waaaaay back I gave the Obamas art advice for the White House walls. They essentially ignored me.

Maybe it is because Cuban-Americans are the only Latino/Hispanics who overwhelmingly vote Republican (in the 90s percentwise).

Kiddin'

Here's what some other folks think the Obamas should acquire for the White House walls.

I still think that my recommendation is the best; the most plebeian and the clearest and closest to the ground and what I think the new White House tenants need to bring to the White House walls.

What art or artist do you think that the Obamas should acquire? Tell me in the comments.

DC Gallery moves

DC's Long View Gallery will relocate to a currently vacant building directly across from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center at 1234 Ninth Street, NW. The gallery’s new space will undergo major renovation, more than quadrupling the gallery’s exhibition capacity, enhancing its custom framing and special event offerings, and making it one of the area’s largest art spaces.

“With many other businesses closing, we have been able to swim against the economic tide, demonstrating that art is indeed a great investment. After three successful years in Shaw, Long View Gallery simply outgrew its current location,” said gallery director Drew Porterfield. “Thanks to Douglas Development, we were able to secure a building with great potential in a location that is impossible to beat—half a block south on Ninth Street from our current location, directly across from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and closer to existing and planned fine restaurants,” Porterfield said. “Shaw has been a wonderful home, and we are thrilled to contribute to its renaissance.”

The gallery’s renovation, designed by local architect Will Couch, will maintain the raw feel of the new location's building while transforming it into a premier gallery space. The new gallery will occupy the southern portion of the building, comprised of nearly 5,000 square feet, more than quadrupling the square footage of the Long View Gallery’s current location.

Call to Artists: In the Spirit of Frida Kahlo

Deadline: June 6, 2009

Frida Kahlo remains one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, but her spectacular life experiences, her writing and her views on life and art have also influenced many artists throughout the years.

From July 1 - August 29, 2009 The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Farm Center in Washington, DC will be hosting Finding Beauty In A Broken World: In the Spirit of Frida Kahlo.

This exhibition hopes to showcase the work in all mediums of artists influenced not only by Kahlo’s art, but also by her biography, her thoughts, and her writing or any other aspect in the life and presence of this remarkable artist who can be interpreted through artwork.

This will be the third Kahlo show that I have juried in the last decade and we are seeking works of art that evoke the prolific range of expression, style and media like that which Frida Kahlo used as an outlet for her life’s experiences.

Get a copy of the prospectus by calling (202) 483-8600 or email gallery@smithfarm.com or download it at www.smithfarm.com/gallery/FINALProspectus.pdf.

Read this

Tom Wolfe, author, man-in-white, and social observer, has always had a keen and clear insight into the social undertows of contemporary society.

Wolfe's 1975 book The Painted Word, is the one that I consider the one of the most influential book on art, nepotism, networking, manipulation and 20th century art history (OK, OK art observations), that I have ever read.

If you want to understand the true historical beginnings (from someone on the scene at the time) of what we now call "contemporary art" and the seminal birth of the elitist attitudes of many intelligent members of the high art apparatnik, then read this book.

"The painter," Wolfe writes, "had to dedicate himself to the quirky god Avant-Garde. He had to keep one devout eye peeled for the new edge on the blade of the wedge of the head on the latest pick thrust of the newest exploratory probe of this fall's avant-garde Breakthrough of the Century.... At the same time he had to keep his other eye cocked to see if anyone in le monde was watching."

I read it when I first started Art School and it saved my Art Life and it cemented the foundations of what has become my opinions, judgements and attitudes towards art.

After you read the book, then and only then, you will understand why "traditional" art critics, desperately seeking approval from their colleagues, hate such an egalitarian art show such as Artomatic, when and if it takes place in our own backyard, but would love it in another location outside the US.

New art space in Georgetown

It is at 3146 Dumbarton Place, NW (2nd Floor), Washington, District of Columbia 20007 and they're having a champagne toast to the new space tomorrow (6-8PM) to celebrate the new space and new paintings by Michael Weiss.

PostSecret at Hillyer Art Space

Artomatic's greatest launching success story: Tim Tate or Frank Warren?


Warren's spectacular worldwide success and multiple best-sellers with PostSecret comes to DC at Hillyer Art Space. PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God has a First Friday Reception on June 5, 2009, 6-9PM. Soundscapes by DJ Underdog. Food and refreshments will be served.

Postcards and materials will be available for all to confess their own secrets (Postcards will be displayed at Hillyer throughout the show and then given to Frank Warren to add to his collection. Details here.

2009 William H. Johnson Prize

Deadline : July 31, 2009

The 2009 William H. Johnson Prize is 25,000 USD and the winner will be announced in September 2009. Early career African American artists who work in painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, installation and/or new genre are eligible to apply.

Details here.

Wanna go to a Bethesda opening tomorrow?

"Searching for Doctor Dean" 2008, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 48 inches
Tomorrow, Saturday, May 30, 2009, from 5-8 pm is the opening of Carol Brown Goldberg: Recent Works at Osuna Art, 7200 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814. The show runs through July 31, 2009.

The show includes large-scale, abstract paintings, created within the past 8 months, as well as a number of hand-made pulp-paper works.

Whimsical works of art at AU Museum through August

The exhibitions open to the public on Saturday, June 6 at the American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center.

Garry Knox Bennett: Call Me Chairmaker features 52 one-of-a-kind sculptural chairs created by Garry Knox Bennett, one of the foremost contemporary studio furniture makers in America. Inspired by well known furniture designers and architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, George Nakashima, and Gerrit Rietveld, Bennett makes his wit and imagination come to life with such chairs as the “Great Granny Rietveld” and “Wiggle Wright.” By using bold new forms and constantly expanding traditional boundaries, Bennett makes furniture a form of art and brings new meaning to the words “sitting pretty.” The exhibition closes Sunday, August 16.

The Washington Print Club’s 20th biennal exhibition, Love, Let Me Count the Ways, is a compilation of approximately 100 prints, drawings, and pastels from print club member collections. Images of love range from the maternal and sexual to the mythological, patriotic/political, and psychological. The exhibition includes prints dating from the sixteenth century to contemporary productions. While most of the pieces are by Americans, works on paper by Spanish, German, French, Japanese, English, and Norwegian artists also are represented. The exhibition closes Sunday, August 9.

Robert Hudson and Richard Shaw: Collaborations brings together more than 60 collaborative and individual sculptural works created during the 40-year careers of Robert Hudson and Richard Shaw. Highlighting the unique and inventive partnership of these renowned San Francisco Bay area artists, the exhibition features works in porcelain and glaze that challenge perceptions of art, craft, and the conventional modes of artistic production. Collaborations has been made possible through the support of Braunstein/Quay Gallery in San Francisco, California. The exhibition closes Sunday, August 9.

The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free.

Call for artists

ArtDC.org has another call for artists. Check it out here.

Glass Art Tours of Artomatic

Meet in the lobby of Artomatic for a guided glass tour. Hosted by members of the Washington Glass School, these informative tour guides will lead you directly to all the great glass on exhibit this year!

Every wonder how a piece of glass art was made or what was the artist's motivation? This is your chance to ask and learn. All tours leave from the Lobby of Artomatic, 55 M Street SE, Washington, DC. Wear comfortable walking shoes and join in the fun!

Saturday May 30, 2009 @ 5:30pm, Allegra Marquart and Lisa Osgood Dano will be your tourguides.

Artomatic Opens Tomorrow!

If you are an artist or art lover reading this post, then chances are that you already know what Artomatic (or AOM) is and all about this amazing spectacle.

But just in case, a little review.

About once a year or so, under the guiding hand of a board of hardworking artists and volunteers, a large, unoccupied building in the Greater Washington, DC area is identified, and eventually filled with hundreds of artists’ works, loads of theatre and dance performances, panels, and everything associated with breathing a powerful breath of energy into the Greater DC art scene.

Let’s review: The idea behind AOM is simple: find a large, empty building somewhere in the city; work with the building owners, and then allow any artist who wants to show their work help with staging the show, pay a small fee and work a few hours assisting with the show itself.

Any artist.

Artists love AOM, but most DC area art critics hate it.

Why?

I think that in order to write a proper, ethical review of AOM, a writer must spend hours walking several floors of art, jam-packed into hundreds of rooms, bathrooms, closets and stairs. And I think that this is one of the main reasons that most art critics love to hate this show. It overwhelms them with visual offerings and forces them to develop a “glance and judge” attitude towards the artwork. It’s a lot easier to carpet bomb a huge show like this than to do a surgical strike to try to find the great art buried by the overwhelming majority that constitutes the great democratic pile of so so artwork and really bad artwork.

Add on top of that, an outdated, but “alive and kicking” elitist attitude towards an open show, where anyone and everyone who calls him or herself an artist can exhibit, sans the sanitizing and all-knowing eye of the latest trendy curator, and you have a perfect formula for elitist dismissing of this show, without really looking at it.

This harsh and elitist attitude towards art is not new or even modern. It was the same attitude that caused the emergence of the salons of the 19th century, where only artists that the academic intelligentsia deemed good enough were exhibited. As every art student who almost flunked art history knows, towards the latter half of that century, the artists who had been rejected from the salons (because they didn’t fit the formula of good art) organized their own Salon Des Refuses, sort of a 19th century Parisian Art-O-Matique.

And a lot, in fact, most of the work in the Salon Des Refuses was quite so so, but amongst the dreck were also pearls like Manet's Le Dejeuner sur 'Herbe (Luncheon in the Grass), Monet's Impression: Sunrise, (and we all know what art “ism” that title gave birth to) and an odd and memorable looking portrait of a young lady in white (The White Girl, Symphony in White, No. 1) by an American upstart by the name of James McNeill Whistler.

Everyone who was anyone in the art world hated and dismissed this anti-salon exhibition; except for the only one that really counts: Art History.

But how does a writer cover an arts extravaganza of the size of AOM once the eyes and mind become numb after the 200th artist, or the 400th or the 1,000th?

As an art critic, I once started a review of a past AOM by complaining how much my feet hurt after my 5th or 6th visit to the show, in a futile attempt to gather as much visual information as possible in order to write a fair review of the artwork. Over the years I have discovered that it is impossible to see everything and to be fair about anyone; the sheer size and evolving nature of the show itself makes sure of the impossibility of this task. But AOM is not just about the artwork.

As a gallerist, I also have visited AOM looking for new talent amongst the vast numbers of artists who come together under one roof. Over the years, together with my fellow DC area gallerists, we have plucked many artists from the ranks and files of AOM. Artists who since their first appearance at past AOMs have now joined the collections of museums and Biennials and have been picked up by galleries nationwide. Names like Tim Tate, the Dumbacher Brothers, Kelly Towles, Michael Janis, Kathryn Cornelius, Richard Chartier and that amazing worldwide phenomenon and best-selling author Frank Warren of PostSecret fame. But AOM is not just about the emerging superstar artist.

As an artist, one year I decided to participate in AOM, just to see what the guts of the machine looked like. "I know the monster well," wrote the poet Jose Marti, "for I have lived in its entrails."

My volunteer hours patrolling the halls on a Wednesday night at midnight, and still seeing people come in and out, and explore art on the wee hours of the morning, also left a footprint on the public impact of the exhibition. Dealing with prima donna artists, recharging my own artistic batteries from hundreds of fellow artists, many of them in their first public exposure, also left an impression. But AOM is not just about the public.

AOM is two things to me:

It is perhaps the nation’s most powerful incarnation of what it means to be a creative community of hundreds of working creative hands all aligned to not only create artwork, but also put together a spectacular extravaganza that re-charges the regional art scene as no museum or gallery show can. AOM is a community of artists employing the most liberal of approaches to art that there exists: the artists are in charge, and the artists make it work, and the artists charge the city with energy and zeal. And these descendants of those brave souls who challenged the academic salons of the 19th century face the same negative eye from the traditional art critics and curators of our museums, who challenge not just the art, but the concept of an open, non-juried, most democratic of art shows: a community of artists in charge of energizing the community at large. All good group shows must be curated! shout these chained critical voices.

And AOM is certainly the easiest and most comprehensive way to discover contemporary art at its battlefront lines, right at the birth of many artists, paradoxically showcasing the area's artworld's deepest and also its newest roots. This is where both the savvy collector, and the beginning collector, and the aspiring curator, and the sharp-eyed gallerist can come to one place with a sense of discovery in mind. And the ones that I missed in the past, and who were discovered by others, are ample evidence of the subjectivity of a 1,000+ group art show.

Viva AOM!

This year’s AOM runs from May 29 through July 5, 2009, and it is located at the new building at 55 M Street, S.E. - essentially on top the Navy Yard Metro - celebrating its tenth anniversary in a newly built 275,000 square foot "LEED Silver Class A building", whatever that means. It is all free and open to the public and all the details and dates and parties and performances and panels, as well as all the participating artists can be found at Artomatic.org.

Artists' Websites: Claudia Hart

Ophelia (detail) by Claudia Hart, c.2008
Claudia Hart has been active as an artist, curator and critic since 1988. She creates virtual paintings that take the form of 3d imagery integrated into photography, animated loops, and multi-channel animation installations. Featured above is an out-take from Ophelia (2008), a single-screen work.

Visit her website here.

The UK comes to Artomatic

Remember Glass3, the international glass show in Georgetown that incorporated artists from the UK's National Glass Centre last February?

Well, they are back!

24 glass artists are part of this year's Artomatic and the DC art extravaganza's first international participants. The artists will be also performing demonstrations of their unusual techniques at the Washington Glass School in Mount Rainier and at DC GlassWorks in nearby Hyattsville.

Saturday, May 30, 2009: starting at 1.30 pm, Phil Vickery and Roger Tye will be glass blowing at DC GlassWorks. RSVP to info@dcglassworks.com.

On Sunday, May 31, 2009, starting at 2:00 pm, Stephen Beardsell and Karin Walland will be demonstrating their techniques at the Washington Glass School.

Karin will show how to cast small objects in frozen glass powder (an alternative to the messy lost wax method). Stephen will be showing and describing his method of creating great depth with frit casting and inclusions.

RSVP to washglassschool@aol.com

Both events are free and open to the public.

Artomatic early report

An artist from AOM writes:

Went around looking at other peoples artwork after finishing install on Monday.

With 8 floors of art to see I went through it all pretty quick - but noticed the following:

(a) still a lot of artists had not set-up.

(b) On level 5, the British artists who are participating in this year's AOM are due in tomorrow (Wed) but all thru the levels there were still untouched walls - hopefully all wait-listed artists are in and working today.

(c) Glad to see Anne Benolken's Kali series is back; Level 2 has some knockout works, with Drew Graham's 3-D tatoo inspired wall sculptures are strong as ever.

(d) Margaret Dowell has a painted portrait of artist Joseph Barbacia holding that penis knife that you had in 'Seven' - creepy cool.

(e) I got tired going down from Level 9, but there was so much on Level 2 that was good, that I'd recommend that one does not overlook that floor .

(f) Many of the Washington Glass School artists are on 8 - Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Syl Mathis, Cheryl Derricotte & Michael Janis are all in one bay, facing Laurel Lukaszewski and Novie Trump's setups.

The building is easy to walk thru and see a lot.

Bummer

I'm bummed out because my application to Pulse Miami was rejected. I had applied to bring the work of one of our artists to Pulse.

Young Photographers 2009

Opening Reception and awards ceremony for the "Young Photographers" exhibition is on Saturday, May 30th, 5:00 - 6:30 PM at Photoworks Gallery, 1st Floor Arcade Building in Glen Echo Park, MD.

This exhibition is all about a talented group of photographers from high schools, middle schools and elementary schools throughout the Washington Metropolitan Region.

"What is so gratifying here is to know in one's bones that the young photographers displayed on these walls love the process of making pictures. You don't produce work like this without loving the process -- the physical act of taking photographs."

Frank Van Riper, Juror
Young Photographers Competition

Artists' Websites: Ana Serrano

Came across Ana Serrano's work through Regina Hackett and loved the cardboard work (that's a detail of Serrano's Chalino to the left).

Serrano recently graduated from the Art Center College of Design with honors, and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Visit her website here.

Aqui Estamos talk tonight

If you are around the Northern Liberties' section of Philadelphia later today, drop by Projects Gallery for my talk on the subject of Cuban art.



You can't miss the gallery. It's the one with the giant milk cross by Alejandro Mendoza hanging above it. Talk starts at 6:30PM.

The Power of Democratizing Art

Billed as the first arts competition of its kind to incorporate public voting in an online forum, the inaugural Baker Artist Awards recently invited artists from Baltimore and its surrounding counties to upload examples of their work to a Web site. More than 650 people responded, in disciplines as diverse as drawing, sculpture, painting, photography, video, film, animation, spoken and written word, dance, theater, graphic design and craft.

More than 35,000 visitors to the site then voted on their favorites, narrowing the field to a top 10, from which three were chosen by an interdisciplinary panel of experts to receive $25,000 each, no strings attached. Each of the seven runners-up got a check for $1,000. As with the MacArthur Foundation "genius" fellowships, the judges were anonymous. The money comes from the William G. Baker Jr. Memorial Fund, established in 1964 in memory of a Baltimore investment banker but only focusing on arts and culture since 2007.

And guess what? The results, on view in a bricks-and-mortar showcase at the Baltimore Museum of Art, aren't half bad. You can view, listen to or watch submissions by all 656 artists at http://www.bakerartistawards.org. But to fully appreciate the work of the top three prize-winners -- sculptor John Ruppert, jazz saxophonist Carl Grubbs and Hadieh Shafie, whose works here are in a variety of 2-D media -- you'll need to tear yourself away from your computer.

Read WaPo art critic Michael O'Sullivan here.

O'Sullivan also has another small piece on the same subject here.

An ailing art market

Since the financial crisis began, the art market has taken a series of severe blows and is now subject to various external and internal pressures. In the United States, for example, the fall in private subsidies to the Arts has led to significant personnel reductions at some of the most prestigious museums (the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles have both cut staff by 20%). At the same time, an enormous volume of cash that was fuelling the market has literally disappeared as the new ultra high net worth individuals in Russia, India and Turkey have seen their fortunes substantially diminished (by the end of Q1 2009, the world counted 300 less billionaires) and the banks have stopped financing acquisitions of art works: the giant UBS has closed down its art advisory pole dedicated to buying and selling artworks.

Read the analysis in Artprice.com here.

Opportunity for Artists

The Delaplaine Arts Education Center in Frederick, Maryland is seeking proposals for solo and small group shows. They are currently scheduling for 2010-2011. The Center houses 6 galleries; the shows change on a monthly-bimonthly basis.

All media is considered, a preference is given to regional artists, but every properly submitted proposal is reviewed.

For more information please visit their website and download a prospectus from the bottom of the EXHIBITS page or email Diane at dsibbison@delaplaine.org.

Aqui Estamos in City Paper

The Philadelphia City Paper highlights Aqui Estamos, the Cuban group art show that I curated for Projects Gallery in Philadelphia.

Read it here.

Mrs. Obama supports Artomatic

You have to read between the lines but, here it is!

National Gallery of Art Returns a Non-Holocaust Painting

Chaim Soutine’s iconic painting entitled Piece de Boeuf (Piece of Beef c. 1923) is being returned to the Shefner Family in resolution of litigation commenced against the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. From the news release:

A unique and unusual settlement regarding Chaim Soutine’s iconic painting entitled Piece de Boeuf (Piece of Beef c. 1923) was approved last week by Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York. Pursuant to the settlement, the painting is being returned to the Shefner Family in resolution of litigation commenced against the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Maurice Tuchman and Esti Dunow, the authors of the Soutine Catalogue Raisonné.

The settlement is believed to be the first time that the National Gallery of Art has deaccessioned a non-Holocaust work of art from its permanent collection. The stated policy of the National Gallery of Art is not to deaccession any of its permanent collection. In consideration of the unique nature of the settlement agreement and the circumstances surrounding the painting’s return, the parties have agreed that the painting shall remain on loan to the National Gallery of Art for the benefit of the American public for the near future.

“The Shefner Family is pleased to be welcoming this iconic Soutine back to their family,” said Karl Geercken, of Alston & Bird LLP, lead attorney for the plaintiff. “We believe this is a positive outcome for all parties involved.”

Chaim Soutine, a Russian-born French expressionist painter, lived from 1893 until 1943. His series of ten beef carcass paintings are considered to be among his most notorious and controversial works. The majority of the beef paintings are currently in prominent museums. This painting is one of the last in the series to be privately owned.

As noted by the National Gallery of Art, Piece of Beef (accession 2004.126.1) is an outstanding example of 20th century expressionist art that makes “deliberate reference to a long tradition of the subjects of butchers, market-stalls, and game in paintings by Rembrandt, Chardin, and Goya, whose works Soutine studied in his visits to the Louvre.” Soutine’s work has also been described as being especially significant during the 1950s to painters such as Willem de Kooning.

Armed Robbery at Dutch Museum

From the Art Loss Register:

In the first of two robberies at Dutch museums this month, two important 20th century artworks were stolen by a group of masked and armed thieves from the Scheringa Museum for Realism, located about 30 miles north of Amsterdam. The robbery occurred around noon on May 1. The artworks, a surrealist gouache by Salvador Dali and an art deco portrait by Tamara de Lempicka, were among the most valuable pictures in the museum's collection.

The theft coincides with a recent interest in Lempicka's work. Days after the heist, a similar painting by Lempicka sold at auction in the US for $6 million, setting the record for the artist. According to the Art Loss Register's database, Salvador Dali is the fourth-most stolen artist, with over 400 artworks currently missing.

From Top: Salvador Dali, Adolescence, 1941, gouache, 17.5 x 12 in., signed and dated lower right; Tamara de Lempicka, The Musician, 1929, oil on canvas, 51 x 28.75 in., signed and dated lower right. ALR Ref # L09.335.

Frida Kahlo on Ebay

Wanna own an original Campello vintage 1979?

This drawing of Frida Kahlo by yours truly just made an appearance on Ebay and is going for $40 - certainly a steal on a 20 year-old Campello original.

It is being sold by Americana Illustration Art. I did that drawing while I was a student at the University of Washington School of Art.

Bid on it here. Hurry, the auction ends May 25.

MAP has new director

Cathy Byrd is the new Executive Director of the Maryland Art Place.

After an expansive national search, MAP’s Board of Trustees has selected Cathy Byrd to lead the organization in efforts to maximize its engagement with the Baltimore cultural community. “Cathy's background has prepared her for all of the opportunities available to MAP today. I have confidence that she will lead and strengthen the organization in significant ways,” says Suzi Cordish, Board chairperson.

Ms. Byrd comes to Baltimore after eight years as Director of the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design Gallery at Georgia State University in Atlanta. In that position, she conceived and produced a series of contemporary art exhibitions and events that involved extensive local, national and international collaboration and outreach. Among her signature projects are Book Unbound; PG-13: Male Adolescence in a Video Culture; Strange Planet; Potentially Harmful: The Art of American Censorship; Re\constructing Atlanta: a contemporary continuum ; and New Wave Atlanta: When Urban Intervention Speaks French . Ms. Byrd is one of three curators currently organizing the exhibition Losing Yourself in the 21st Century through the blog site .

During her tenure in Atlanta, Ms. Byrd co-organized public talks and performances by renowned artists including Ann Hamilton, Janine Antoni, Liliana Porter, Meschac Gaba and Karen Finley. A public art advocate, Ms. Byrd was a member of Atlanta’s Metropolitan Public Art Coalition. She served on review panels for city and county public art projects and for the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport’s newest international terminal. At GSU, she initiated and directed an annual Student Sculpture Garden Project, as well as a sustainable native garden in downtown Hurt Park, a temporary truck fountain in Cleopas R. Johnson Park, and Le Flash, a one-night performance art and installation event in Castleberry Hill District .

Her engaging conceptual projects have been awarded significant funding through local, regional, national and international institutions, including the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Etant donnés: The French American Fund for Contemporary Art, and the Cultural Services of the French, Belgian and Dutch Consulates.

Ms. Byrd has produced books for Potentially Harmful and Re\constructing Atlanta and is currently completing a DVD box set to document New Wave Atlanta. She is a widely published art writer whose reviews and features on artists including Pierre Huyghe, Janet Biggs, Dan Graham, Carrie Mae Weems and Antoni Muntadas have appeared in contemporary magazine, London, Art in America, Sculpture, Art Papers, Beaux Arts and Public Art Review, among other publications.

We all wish her the best of luck in her new endeavor!

Call to Artists: In the Spirit of Frida Kahlo

Deadline: June 6, 2009

Frida Kahlo remains one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, but her spectacular life experiences, her writing and her views on life and art have also influenced many artists throughout the years.

From July 1 - August 29, 2009 The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at Smith Farm Center in Washington, DC will be hosting Finding Beauty In A Broken World: In the Spirit of Frida Kahlo.

This exhibition hopes to showcase the work in all mediums of artists influenced not only by Kahlo’s art, but also by her biography, her thoughts, and her writing or any other aspect in the life and presence of this remarkable artist who can be interpreted through artwork.

This will be the third Kahlo show that I have juried in the last decade and we are seeking works of art that evoke the prolific range of expression, style and media like that which Frida Kahlo used as an outlet for her life’s experiences.

Get a copy of the prospectus by calling (202) 483-8600 or email gallery@smithfarm.com or download it at www.smithfarm.com/gallery/FINALProspectus.pdf

Artomatic opens in 9 days!

Artomatic (or AOM) opens in nine days!

The Pittman WPA Scam

Some asshole is using the WPA Online Artfile to try to scam artists. If you get an email from ssgpittman115@yahoo.com, claiming to be from a soldier in Iraq, delete it and send the originator a mental curse in the name of some ancient god.

Artists' Websites: Catherine Tafur

Catherine Tafur, The Three Graces
Catherine Tafur was born in Lima, Peru in 1976 to a Peruvian father and a Japanese mother. She studied at the Cooper Union School of Art where she earned her BFA. The artist has since shown her work at venues throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. Tafur's work "uses the image of the body as a way to explore ideas of gender deconstruction, confrontational sexuality, disillusionment and loss of innocence. She transforms personal experiences into allegorical works of poetic representational symbolism, often through painful disfigurements, idealized androgyny, and mutilation."

Tafur now lives and works in New York City and is an artist-in-residence at the Brooklyn Artists Gym. Visit her website here.

New Baltimore Gallery

TAG Gallery is a new space that opened last year in Baltimore. They're located at 732 S. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21231.

Visit them online here.