Music to wrap Xmas presents by...

Other suggestions welcomed...

Blake Gopnik's best art of 2010

"The old masters are getting younger by the day. 2010 was a year -- maybe the first -- in which all of modern art has started feeling safely in the past, fully museum-able. There were fine shows of older work, but they rarely had the force of exhibitions exploring the last century. Here, in chronological order, are 10 shows that have stuck in my mind."

Rousseau on BlackRock

Walking into the art gallery at BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown feels almost like a breath of fresh air. The current exhibit features the large canvases of Carol Brown Goldberg, Sondra Arkin and Greg Minah.

Read the review online here.

(e)merge

More about (e)merge here including an interview by Isabelle Spicer with Mera Rubell.

Seen on Univision

Modern Family's Colombian-born actress/model Sofia Vergara is currently doing an ad for Comcast on Spanish-language TV.

Something seemed a little off from the Vergara on the ad and the Vergara Gloria character on Modern Family.

I could be wrong, but it looks to me that Vergara's Colombian character requires that the actress dye her hair black and darken her skin; I guess to make her fit the stereotype that Hollywood has for "Hispanics/Latinos."

Apparently Vergara is a natural blonde and has hazel eyes. According to several internet websites, although she was well-known in Spanish-language TV, she could not get any Hollywood gigs unless she dyed her hair dark to force her into a more "Latina" look. In fact Vergara has stated that:

“I’m a natural blonde. But when I started acting, I would go to auditions and they didn’t know where to put me because I was voluptuous and had the accent - but I had blonde hair. It was ignorance: They thought every Latin person looks like Salma Hayek. The moment I dyed my hair dark, it was, ‘Oh, she’s the hot Latin girl.’ I loved it. I’d always felt a little ‘too much’ as a blonde, like a big-mouth version of Pamela Anderson. Being brunette toned me down a bit.”

I'm just curious if now she also has to tan her skin a few shades in order to fit the way Hollywood wants her character to look like.

Makes my head hurt.

Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship Program

Deadline: Monday, February 28, 2011

The Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship Program is now accepting applications for its 2011-2013 term.

This is the fourth annual open call to emerging artists to apply to their two-year Fellowship Program, aimed to aid in the professional development of contemporary visual artists.

Please refer to their website for application requirements, restrictions and forms. The application process will close at 6:00 pm on on Monday, February 28, 2011, and any applications received after that date will not be considered.

Wild Assed Guessing

Yesterday I told you how Blake (and Jessica) got his job at the WaPo back in the days when the Post used to have a weekly galleries column, a weekly museum review and a weekly "Arts Beat" column focused often on local galleries and visual artists, and wasn't such an ardent member of the Fake News Industrial Complex.

Over the decade that was all pretty much decimated by Eugene Robinson when he ran the Style section for a few years. In my opinion, and as an outsider looking in, Robinson all but destroyed the visual arts coverage in the Style section, pretty much reducing it to the sorry state that it is today: the galleries column is about twice a month, "Arts Beat" is gone and the chief art critic writes ad hoc about museums and New York art shows. A studied review of old entries about this issue reported in this blog will reveal me reporting on many promises by the WaPo Style leadership over the years; promises which were never actually delivered.

And in 2011 I can almost understand why... after all, readers are leaving the WaPo and other papers in droves, advertising revenues are down, management still has a 1990s mindset in the 21st century (they fought the opportunities opened by the internet when they had an early chance), etc.

And in view of all this, I think that there are three scenarios for the expected replacement of Blake Gopnik.

I write "expected" because we're all assuming and expecting that the Post will replace Gopnik's voice, tasks and assignments with another writer. But even that is not a given in 2011, and I'm sure that someone at the Post, probably outside of Style (and instead one of the bean counters) will make a case for just using AP or UPI art reviews.

But I suspect that even Don Graham understands that as (arguably) the nation's second most influential newspaper, the WaPo must have a chief art critic. All the other big boy newspapers do. If you don't get it, you don't get it.

So in order of probability the three scenarios are:

1. WaPo gets a replacement for Gopnik from "in-house" by filling the position with someone already in the employment of the WaPo.

2. WaPo contracts a local DMV writer to contribute museum reviews and he/she shares the load with Dawson, already a contracted freelancer.

3. WaPo hires an outsider art critic from another newspaper below the "newspaper food chain" from the WaPo (same as they did with Gopnik).

Scenario one is the most probable because it is the least costly to the WaPo. By replacing Gopnik with a critic already in the employ of the WaPo, salary negotiations are easier, and the WaPo saves on moving expenses as well as travel expenses in interviewing applicants from outside the area. It also makes the paperwork a lot easier and in the end the payroll is one less as no one has had to be hired in order to replace Gopnik. If this scenario is the principal one, then this would be good news for the DMV art scene, as the logical replacement for Gopnik would be O'Sullivan. And he is already well-versed in the DMV art scene, knows everyone and everyone knows him, and would just have to move his desk from Weekend to Style. Cost to the WaPo?: A well-deserved pay raise bump to O'Sullivan. Cost to O'Sullivan?: He may end up writing reviews for both Style and Weekend and doubling his work load (and thus his paycheck?). Or Weekend would hire a freelancer to do some random visual art reviews every couple of months or so. An interesting twist to this scenario would be if Style got Dr. Claudia Rousseau, who (a) writes for the Gazette, which is owned by the Post and thus already within the Post financial borg, and (b) comes with a respectable and award winning provenance for critical art writing derived from many years of writing about art (in Spanish) for Latin American newspapers and locally for the Gazette, (c) she is a respected college professor on the subject of art and art history, and (d) would add some highly needed diversity to the ranks of Style critics.

Scenario two is the next most probable because it ends with a couple of freelancers (not Post employees) sharing the Gopnik load for Style. That means they save on insurance, 401(k), etc. If scenario two is the one, then one of these guys/gals is the pool of DMV art critics and artsy writers (in no particular order): Jeffry Cudlin, Claudia Rousseau, Maura Judkis, John Anderson, Kriston Capps, Kevin Mellema, John Blee, JW Mahoney, Lou Jacobson (he'd only do photography reviews), John Blee, etc. and maybe some of those random names that show up once in a while in the back of the magazine reviews in the national artzines. The top two choices?: Cudlin or Rousseau. They are both award winning critics, well-known and respected in the DMV and I'm somewhat sure that they'd be interested in the job. Because of Cudlin's superb performance as a curator at the AAC, Cudlin is a double threat for moving up the food chain in the better paid curatorial food chain, and maybe he's more interested in following that line, but he'd still make an excellent Gopnik-replacement local choice (but not sure if he could do both jobs at once). Rousseau's strong points are discussed in the previous scenario, and also make her a formidable choice (if she's interested in the job). Because of Cudlin's success as a curator, I think Jeffry is probably more in tune with moving up the curatorial food chain (are you listening Hirshhorn?) and thus advantage Rousseau.

Scenario three is the least likely because it is the most expensive and time intensive for the Post. The new hire would have to be lured away from another newspaper, and be hired as a Post employee with all rights and benefits. This seems a long shot in this financially austere environment where the WaPo is early-retiring and letting go people of left and right. Four wild assed guesses: Fabiola Santiago from the Miami Herald, Alan Artner from the Chicago Tribune, Robert Pincus (formerly of the San Diego Union-Tribune) and Regina Hackett (formerly of the Seattle P.I.). My heart would be with Regina.

Let's see how right I am, meanwhile I will be waiting for the Post to call me to be part of their search committee for the hiring of the new Blake Gopnik.

Comments welcomed; I am sure that I skipped some potential names in scenario two.

Oh yeah... the replacement for Givhan is easy: Philippa P. B. Hughes.

(e)merge

I never got the news release, which bums me out, but now that I'm back in the DMV from Miami, I hear that Leigh Conner and Jamie Smith, whom are the hardworking co-founders of Conner Contemporary Art, and Helen Allen, former director of the PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, are launching an art fair in D.C.: (e)merge.

I got the news from Kriston Capps over at the WCP, who seems positive about it (yay), as do I.

Why?

As Capps points out, the fact that Conner & Smith are involved, plus the endorsement of world-class art collectors like the Rubells, plus the former Pulse imprimatura of the very fair Helen Allen, all seem to add to making this new art fair a good one.

Key to the success of the fair are also how successful the organizers are in ensuring that the key DMV art galleries participate.

Why?

Easy... if the top 15-20 DMV art galleries, the ones that already do art fairs in NYC, Miami, Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Persian Gulf, participate in this fair, they will bring with them their jealously guarded collectors' list and they will mail their VIP passes to those collectors.

And those collectors will come, just for a curiosity, and also a chance to hang around with other DMV collectors and some international names brought in by Rubell & Allen. And if they come (which they didn't en mass to Art DC), then the chances of success for this fair improves tremendously.

And because the very cool Rubells are involved, and because they are nice people who are big names in the world scene who have nothing to do with politics, the press will be interested and positive and supportive (witness Capps); as if some big movie star was doing this; but in this case an art star (can one have two semi-colons in one long, run-on sentence?)

Another big improvement: the change from the Convention Center to the Capitol Skyline Hotel is a huge one. The "savings" are both psychological and monetary, from such simple issues as union hands at the convention center requiring to move your art in and out of your booth (at an added cost), parking issues, etc. Let's just say (coming from someone who has done a lot of art fairs): I am glad that it is at a hotel rather than the Convention Center.

The formula looks good.

Can I hear an "Amen".... somebotttty!

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: December 17, 2010

Call for entries for the Fifth Annual Photography Exhibition at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Entries must be received by December 17, 2010. The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is seeking submissions of any and all photographic processes, black and white or color, traditional or alternative, material or digital, time-based, performance based, any work exploring the act of photography. The exhibition will open on January 8, 2011 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. and will run through February 4, 2011. Cash awards will be announced at the opening.

The juror for the exhibition is Bruce McKaig, local artist and art educator. Bruce McKaig chairs the Photography Department at CHAW and teaches at Georgetown University and the Smithsonian Associates. He has exhibited nationally and internationally for over thirty years and every once in a while reviews a DMV show in this blog. For more information about his work, please visit his website here.

HOW: Submit the following:
➢ Three to five jpegs on a CD
➢ Image inventory list specifying title, size, medium, date and price (or insurance value)
➢ Contact info including a mailing address, phone number and email
➢ An entry fee of $25.00 for up to five images, payable to CHAW

WHERE: Please hand deliver or mail these materials to:

CHAW
545 7th Street SE
Washington DC 20003

Things I don't understand

Now that Blake is leaving the WaPo and heading to his beloved New York, and of course we wish this erudite and polarizing man the best of luck in NYC (as we used to say in the Navy: "fair winds and following seas"), the question is: what is the big secret as to what his next gig is?"

Any guesses? New York Times, New York Post, New York Daily News, New Yorker, Newsweek+Daily Beast? One of the online outlets?

And are there any locals in the running for his job? The last time this happened and Gopnik got hired, was (in newspaper years) eons ago, when newspapers were actually hiring personnel.

Prior to coming to the WaPo Gopnik used to write for a Canadian newspaper. Then a decade ago, when the then WaPo chief art critic, Paul Richard, sort of retired, the WaPo began to look for a replacement.

Ferdinand Protzman was the critic who used to write the "Galleries" column back then. Protzman had (and still does) a formidable provenance, and prior to moving to DC and writing the "Galleries" column for the Post once a week (ahhh.... the good ole days), had bucket loads of experience writing for European newspapers and American magazines.

And from what I recall, he applied for the Richard vacancy, and when he wasn't selected for the position (given to Gopnik) he quit. At least that's the story which filtered down to the DC art world back then.

That left the WaPo with a freelance vacancy for "Galleries", and Jessica Dawson, who back then was one of the critics for the Washington City Paper and was also doing some online art reviews for the WaPo (ahhh... the good ole days) applied for and got the "Galleries" job.

But in 2011, almost 2012, the situation is very different, and I suspect that the odds now are stacked more in favor of someone already in the WaPo payrolls being moved to the job.

More later...

Blake Gopnik leaving the Washington Post

Just heard from a source a couple of hours ago (who has a source, who has a friend who works at the WaPo)... but couldn't get to Blogger, that it was announced at around 5PM (at 5:02 pm actually, with an email with the odd subject of "milestones") that their chief art critic, Blake Gopnik is leaving the paper and "is now taking on a new opportunity in New York, the place he has long understood and explained but will now fully inhabit." From the WaPo memo:

Blake Gopnik has also informed us of his intention to try something new elsewhere. Blake has given ten years of his insight and his intellect to the readers of the Washington Post, and is now taking on a new opportunity in New York, the place he has long understood and explained but will now fully inhabit. We are sorry to lose his voice on the matters of aesthetics and politics that he has interpreted in Washington's fine arts centers, though he leaves us with one of his greatest journalistic moments, leading a team in Style who have reported on and challenged the Smithsonian's decision to remove a provocative work of art from a provocative exhibit. His columns decrying the removal of "A Fire in My Belly," the video piece by David Wojnarowicz, have earned national attention, and stand with the many adventurous uses of his platform, whether profiling Washington's homegrown enigmatic sculptor Jim Sanborn, championing the electric blue splash of Yves Klein, or challenging Facebook to give its 500 million users more of a visual eyeful. He has set the bar high for his successor and leaves Washington a different cultural place than when he arrived.

O yeah... Robin Givhan is also leaving.

So the WaPo will be looking for a new chief art critic:

The Style section wishes the best to both of these exceptional colleagues as they leave the fourth floor. We will begin looking for new voices to join the collective of cultural critics who make Style a forum for breakthrough reporting and who will challenge the way we think, in the tradition that Robin, Blake and the entire team exemplify.

Next I will tell you what happened the last time that this happened (when Blake was hired).

Kinesthesia II

Click on image for details.

WPA 2011 Artist Directory

Deadline: February 1, 2011

The Washington Project for the Arts has announced a call for submissions for its 2011 Artist Directory.

Published bi-annually, this four-color, 8.5 x 5.5 inch directory is the definitive listing of established and emerging contemporary artists throughout the Washington region. It is seen by more than 2,000 galleries, curators, art consultants, and interested art patrons. Copies are distributed to selected art critics and other members of the press, and to museums both in the region and outside the area. The 2011 Artist Directory will also be available for sale on the WPA website and at select area retail locations at the price of $9.95.

Each participating artist will be featured on a full page (8.5 x 5.5 inches). The page will include the artist's name, a color digital image of their work, their studio address and phone number, email address, web address, and their gallery affiliation.

All current WPA members are eligible for publication in the Artist Directory. There is an additional registration fee that includes a copy of the Artist Directory. At this time, the registration fee is $75. The final registration deadline is February 1, 2011. No submissions will be accepted after this date.

All submissions will be handled through an online registration form on the WPA's website.

Each participating artist can upload one image to be featured on their page. Images must be submitted as .eps or .tif files in CMYK format. They must be 300dpi and as close as possible to, but no smaller than 6 inches on the longest side.

If you have any questions regarding the 2011 Artist Directory, please contact Blair Murphy, Membership Directory at bmurphy@wpadc.org or 202-234-7103 x 1.

American Contemporary Art magazine

The current issue has a couple of DC area reviews covering Scott G. Brooks' recent show at Longview and Alexa Meade's solo debut at Irvine.

Read the magazine online here.

Jury Duty

Yesterday I spent a long but four fun hours jurying 555 works of art submitted to Old Town Alexandria's Gallery West call for artists for its 14th Annual National Show.

I had juried an earlier version of this show, maybe around a dozen years ago, and so it was fun to return and see the state of the nation from this unique perspective.

The quality of the entries was superb, and I've already eyed a couple of artists whose work I'm going to recommend to some local gallerists. Next month I will be awarding the prizes, as soon as the selected pieces arrive and I can award the prizes based on the actual work.

DCist Exposed!


DCist.com sez (and I believe them) that they're pleased to open their fifth annual DCist Exposed Photography Contest. They tell me:

We can't wait to see your best images featuring local arts, music, food, sports and the unique culture of Washington, D.C. See the full rules here, then enter three photos for just a $5 application fee. Deadline is January 12, 2011.

We also want to celebrate five awesome years of Exposed photography by creating a special edition magazine featuring the winners from the last four years, along with our soon-to-be announced 2011 winners. Read all about the project on DCist.

We need some help to get this project off the ground, so head over to Kickstarter -- we're offering tons of rewards for your support. You can essentially 'pre-order' your copy for $25, or for a few additional bucks, get an awesome 8x10 print of an Exposed winning photo, credit in the magazine, and more! We know a few people who've donated and are giving their copy and print as a holiday gift to family or friends -- we approve!

This event is one of the best things that has developed (pun intended) to the DMV art scene over the last few years, so I hope that you join me in ordering one of these books and also in checking out the show!

Does your dog bite?

Is this not the funniest 90 seconds in the history of film?

This is where you go today...

The Washington Glass School has Artwork, Sculpture, Fine Art Furniture and other handmade goods by some of the area’s finest artists. See the new directions the artists of the Washington Glass School are moving traditional craft with integration of modern process, mixed media, and narrative.

Exhibiting artists include: Erwin Timmers, Tim Tate, Elizabeth Mears, Chris Shea, Allegra Marquart, Michael Janis, Nancy Donnelly, Syl Mathis, Robert Kincheloe, Sean Hennessey and Rania Hassan and others.

Music, Demos, Class Specials and more...

The Steel & Glass Sculptural Development class will also present their final sculpture projects and the adjacent Flux Studios will also be open - make it a day of art.

Date: Saturday, December 11, 2010
Time: 2:00 til 6:00 pm
Location: Washington Glass School
3700 Otis Street, Mount Rainier, MD 20712

Plenty of free parking...

Phone: 202.744.8222
website here.

for more info - call Washington Glass School - 202.744-8222
or email: washglassschool@aol.com

Anderson's Baptism

Here he is, wearing a traditional Cuban guayabera for his baptism...

This Saturday...

The Washington Glass School has Artwork, Sculpture, Fine Art Furniture and other handmade goods by some of the area’s finest artists. See the new directions the artists of the Washington Glass School are moving traditional craft with integration of modern process, mixed media, and narrative.

Exhibiting artists include: Erwin Timmers, Tim Tate, Elizabeth Mears, Chris Shea, Allegra Marquart, Michael Janis, Nancy Donnelly, Syl Mathis, Robert Kincheloe, Sean Hennessey and Rania Hassan and others.

Music, Demos, Class Specials and more...

The Steel & Glass Sculptural Development class will also present their final sculpture projects and the adjacent Flux Studios will also be open - make it a day of art.

Date: Saturday, December 11, 2010
Time: 2:00 til 6:00 pm
Location: Washington Glass School
3700 Otis Street, Mount Rainier, MD 20712

Plenty of free parking...

Phone: 202.744.8222
website here.

for more info - call Washington Glass School - 202.744-8222
or email: washglassschool@aol.com

Wanna go to an opening this week?

artdc Gallery (no capital "A") will be opening an exciting new exhibition In the Present: works by Jenny Walton and Alexandra Zealand. The opening reception will be held December 11th from 7-9pm at 5710 Baltimore Avenue in Hyattsville, MD 20781. The exhibition will run through January 9th.

Washington, DC artists card deck

Remember this?

Well, I applied to it and was selected to contribute a card to the deck. I requested and obtained the Joker card, so now gotta get the brain cells going to come up with an interesting (and sexy) joker for the card deck!

Select 2011

I have been invited to participate in the WPA SELECT 2011 WPA Art Auction Gala will take place on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 6:30 PM at 700 Sixth Street, an Akridge property. Akridge is providing a unique, approximately 20,000 sq. ft. space to showcase all the wonderful artwork that has been selected, while also allowing for 500 dinner guests.

The WPA Art Auction Gala is usually one of the hottest tickets of the art season, routinely selling out several weeks in advance.

For 2011 the curators are:

· Vesela Sretenovic - Curator, The Phillips Collection

· Frank Goodyear - Assistant Curator of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery

· Milena Kalinovska - Director of Public Programs, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

· George Ciscle - Curator-in-Residence, Maryland Institute College of Art and Founder of The Contemporary Museum in Baltimore

· Helen C. Frederick - Professor & Director of Printmaking, George Mason University and Founder, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Silver Spring, MD

· Claire D'Alba - Assistant Curator for Art in Embassies

· Annie Adjchavanich, curator at HSPACE Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA.

Details here. By the way... here's the drawing that I will have at the auction:

Eve, Running Away from Eden. 15 x 39 inches. Charcoal on paper.
Circa 2010 by F. Lennox Campello

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: February 15, 2011

Open theme. Palm Beach State College. Juror: Wendy M. Blazier, Senior Curator, Boca Raton Museum of Art. Awards of $1650. Entries due: February 15, 2011. Exhibit: April 21 - June 9, 2011. For a prospectus, send SASE to:

Palm Beach State College
Attn: Kristin M. Hopkins
Gallery Manager
Division of Humanities, MS15
4200 Congress Avenue
Lake Worth, FL 33461 or download at this website.

Airborne


Heading back home today exhausted but very pleased with the ABMB results.

Art Basel MB week: Day Five (Last Day)

Pretty much a repeat of Saturday as far as the size of crowds, although for some odd reason, I was told that people were being turned away about half and hour before the fair officially closed at 6PM.

One of the main reasons that artists and galleries must try to participate in the art madness that is ABMB week is what I call the "wake effect."

The wake effect is all the follow on business, contacts and even exhibition opportunities that happen because of ABMB exposure. For the next few days, and even months, events related to ABMB will happen to the artists and galleries which showed there.

Throughout the day the crowds were fairly good, and MFA managed to sell a couple more of my drawings, as well as a painting by Norfolk, Virginia artist Robert Sipes and as the fair came to an end, a deal was reached between MFA and a Miami collector for a Sheila Giolitti painting.

Also a Palm Beach gallery was very attracted to the work of DMV artist Joey Manlapaz and requested that we put Manlapaz in touch with them.

After six the tear down begins, and an entire week of working long hours (mostly standing up) begins to take its toll and galleries begin to bring art down from the walls, re-wrap and package it all for the return trek home and vans and truck jockey for the best loading spots.

MFA will be back in Miami next month, as the gallery is participating in the Miami International Art Fair at the Miami Beach Convention Center from 13-17 January.

Yes, amazingly enough, about a month after 25 or so art fairs consume Miami, another art fair returns to the area, and last year it attracted about 22,000 visitors.

See ya there!

Art Basel MB week: Day Four

Easily the busiest day of the fairs so far, with lots of crowds filling the tents at Art Miami, Red Dot, Scope and Art Asia in Wynwood and the streets around them.

At MFA, a day of highs and lows. Lows in the sense that there was a tremendous amount of interest at all levels with an inordinate number of near misses ("Wow! That's a really cool painting," she says to him. "I love it!", he adds. Looks at the price. "And it's really a good price"... they walk away).

Highs in the sense that this was the best day for sales so far. Sheila Giolitti sold two paintings, including her largest painting going to a collector in Washington state. MFA also sold a couple of paintings by Russian painter Alexey Terenin, and after an agonizing three separate holds with first right of refusal on Judith Peck's "Jus in Bello" painting (which has been selected for Virginia's CACVB "New Waves" exhibition early next year), the painting was finally sold to a Miami collector at the end of the night.

Also high in the sense that a local art advisor wants to hook up with Lou Gagnon to place some of Gagnon's gorgeous weather studies in some local collectors' homes, and also high that the curator from the Mobile Art Museum added Giolitti to his forthcoming "Southern Women" exhibition.

Next door at Scope, Civilian had sold out all six Trevor Young's brilliant paintings, so Scope has been good to all of them. I also saw some multiple red dots over at Hamiltonian's booth.

There was also some celebrity sightings: Alan Dershowitz haggling over some artwork and Raúl de Molina (El Gordo) from Univision's popular El Gordo y La Flaca TV show strolling around the fair.

That's him talking to the stunning Wonder Woman look-alike gallerina from Anderson Art Collective.

After closing, I headed out to Little Havana and with 15 relatives in tow, we invaded Versailles Restaurant for some late Cuban food. Even at midnight the place was packed and the food was (as usual) amazing. For desert: a torte made out of chocolate and mango.

Art Basel MB week: Day Three

Definitely lots more people today walking about the art fairs, if not necessarily buying the art off the walls, although there were certainly a lot more interest, loads more questions, lots more people asking for business cards and info on artists, some museum curators walking about, etc.

About 1% of all that will lead to actual sales later on in the "wake effect" of being at an art fair.

Some of the close calls were of the "WTF" kind. Such as the fact that Judith Peck's gorgeous and intelligent (and signature piece) "Jus in Bello" was twice in a "first right of refusal" status; twice!

And one couple has come back three nights in a row to look at one of Lou Gagnon pastels.

MFA today sold two Sheila Giolitti resin oil paintings, a couple more of my drawings, and one more Andrew Wodzianski android gouache as well as the first Alexey Terenin oil of the fair.

As I noted earlier, towards the end of the night I almost had my clock cleaned by an older British gent who was irate over my Guevara video drawing. A small crowd gathered as he threatened to hit me. Apparently his Cuban-born wife had been mistreated by Che in the early 60s in Cuba and also her brother had been executed by Guevara during his reign of terror as the chief executor of the Cuban Revolution.

Since this has happened several times this week, by now I have a "system", and soon he was all "explained-out" about the ying yang meaning of this complex piece. In the background, the gigantic figure of DC artist Andrew Wodzianski was covering my back while snapping photos with his phone as a curious crowd gathered. That's one of 11 pics he took.

Two more days left, although from my experience, Saturday is truly the last "real" day as Sunday is strollers day and pack out nightmare evening.

Art Basel MB week: Day Three (0730 report)

I'm almost punched out by a British old man who is married to a Cuban lady whose brother was executed by Che Guevara. He is offended by my video drawing of Che.

I calm him down and explain the piece to him. Andrew Wodzianski is in the background taking pictures; they will be up tomorrow.

Art Basel MB week: Day Three (1300 report)

I walked Scope today at noon and chatted with Civilian Art Projects's folks, dropped them two cold Bustelo's cafe con leche cans and took a walk through the fair. Civilian is showing DMV artist Trevor Young and has so far sold three of Young's gorgeous paintings.

Having walked both Art Miami yesterday and now Scope, I can offer the opinion that at least this year, Art Miami blows Scope away as far as the quality and depth of the art being exhibited. Both are also far better than Red Dot.

There is a lot of video in Art Miami, and a lot of video artists are now doing what DMV artist Tim Tate started doing years ago: taking the video out of the DVD player and incorporating it into sculptural elements. It's a lot easier to justify buying a video when you actually have it as a "showable" work - I think.

But anyway, Scope is somewhat suffering from the "so yesterday" look to a lot of the dated artwork being exhibited. To start, there's a disproportionate number of Chinese and other Asian artists in the fair, all showing the kind of work that was the rage of the art fairs three, four years ago, but that is now so diluted and overexposed that all that it gets is a glance. Then you realize (after talking to someone who knows this) that Art Asia and Scope are together under the same tent and sharing the same floor!

So all the Asian art is actually the Art Asia Art Fair and not the Scope Art Show, but nearly everyone that I talked to was as confused as I was: I thought it was all Scope!

In the real Scope there's also an abundance of artwork that appropriates Marylin Monroe's iconic images and puts them into glittery, shiny surfaces, odd surfaces, fill-in-the-blank surfaces, etc.

It is mostly crap, with the exceptional work of Romero Fudyma at Gallery Biba. Fudyma's sculptural approach to Monroe takes the icon to a stereographic three dimensions that has a hypnotizing effect.

There is also a lot of "angry artist" writing on the wall "art" -- sort of "so last century" work by a couple of European galleries. Speaking of writing, a Costa Rican gallery has a series of blackboards with chalk writing on them with repeated sentences as one would find in the old days when teachers would actually punish a Bart Simpson type kid with writing "I will not be late for school" 100 times on the board.

Yawn...

Other blase and thankfully out of vogue artwork still showing up for some reason at Scope are the big-eyed 1960 Sears type painting of kids that were all the rage a few years ago and that immediately upon falling out of rage a few hours later disappeared from the art scene, but it is clear that at least one gallery didn't get that fax.

One of the best set of works at Scope are the superb paintings by Rafel Bestard at Barcelona's Galeria Contrast. These gorgeous, sexy paintings are worth the trip to Scope alone!

There's a moist sensuality to Bestard's treatment of the subject matter, coupled with a photographic artifice that fools the eye, and which upon closer inspection reveals unexpected textural qualities that almost denies the first photorealism impression.

The sense of sensuality of the works on exhibit also have a strong dose of danger attached to them. Are these wet dreams or are they nightmares? Is the dreamer a frustrated sexpot or a dangerous psychopath?

My suggestion to the 2011 Scope gallery selection committee is simple: Shoot for a 50% refresh rate of new galleries; you need some new blood and need to adjust your rudder to 2011.

Art Basel MB week: Day Two

The fairs are all in full swing now, and Wynwood is traffic-jammed with people as I get dropped off at Red Dot for another day of art fairing.

In the early afternoon, a couple who had been there on opening night returns and acquires another one of my drawings. The piece will have to make a return trip to the DMV in order to be shipped to them. Soon after that a gorgeous Rosemary Feit Covey wood engraving finds a home in a California collection.

The well-known Texas video collector returns and kidnaps me to Art Miami across the street to show me her latest acquisition, and I swing by Chicago's Catherine Edelman Gallery, which is showcasing Tim Tate's self-contained video installations. There's already one red dot when I get there. The owner approaches me and asks if I'm familiar with Tate's work. I smile and respond yes. She says something along the lines of how everybody seems to know Tate.

I return across the street and my daughters have arrived, and almost immediately they depart and start touring the fairs. Meanwhile, Andrew Wodzianski, who is walking Art Basel in Miami Beach, texts me that he just ran into Steve Martin.

Over at Red Dot, Miami's Oxenberg Fine Art, which is also showcasing Tim Tate's videos, has also sold one of the self-contained video sculptures. Tate is having a good day at ABMB.

AT 6PM the booze starts pouring and this time is free margaritas for the crowds. The alcohol does little to loosen purses, although I do help to sell a couple more of my drawings.

A TV crew from Art Miami TV shows up and they are taken by Sheila Giolitti's luminous resin paintings and want to do a piece on them. Giolitti is a little nervous about being interviewed on TV and so she downs a beer to calm her nerves. The crew shoots a long clip on her and her work.

By 8PM my feet are killing me and my daughters and I head back to Hollywood for a Thai dinner on the beach.

Wanna go to a DC opening tomorrow?

Art Basel MB week: Day One

I arrive at 11 am and we take down the Rosemary Feit Covey triptych that we had laboriously set up the day before and replace them with some of Covey's strong signature pieces; it's just a gut feeling.

The day passes through slowly, and we are across from the Bustelo coffee stand, which has free chilled coffee drinks and free Cuban coffee all day long. Gallerists and dealers from Scope next door keep sneaking in through the tent's side door to grab free coffee.

Somewhere in the early afternoon MFA sells another Michael Fitts painting and I get into an almost fist-fight over the Che Guevara video piece. Later that day a well-known video collector from Texas drops by and MFA owner Sheila Giolitti sells her a video, sight unseen, by Norfolk video artist John Miles Runner.

DC artist Trevor Young, who is with Civilian Projects over at Scope, drops by and we chat about the NPG David Wojnarowicz controversy back in DC, about William Sickert, and about the arbitrary choosing of 22 seconds as the max time sample for audio. Young has sold three paintings so far at Scope and is having a well-deserved super fair.

At 6PM free tequila drinks begin to be served and now the invasion from Scope is in full mass as Scope artists and dealers use Red Dot's side door to sneak in and grab a free drink.

Later that night, the crowd thickens and Lynnvale's Lou Gagnon's elegant landscapes start to get a lot of attention from the Wednesday night crowd. At some point after that, Andrew Wodzianski cracks the ice and one of his "Android Series" (Bad Hair Day II (Sue Richards)) pieces finds a home with a Miami collector.

As the night moves, another Michael Fitts painting is sold and almost immediately I sell my Frida Kahlo homage drawing (done at the last possible minute), to one of the DMV's best known art collecting couples.

At seven the fair closes and I drive to Hialeah to pick up my daughter Vanessa at the airport and drive her to cousin Jorge's fortress house in Little Havana. When she arrives, she's hungry and Jorge feeds her sopa de chicharos.

Art Basel MB week: Day Oneish (Preview Day)

The day starts with last minute adjustments to the booth and artists' names and work title tags go up. By 3:30 the staff is kicking everyone out for a couple of hours in order for the cleaning crew to vacuum Red Dot's new black carpet before the grand opening preview at 6PM.

By 4:00PM I'm in my hotel in Hollywood showering and putting on the uniform for tonight's festivities. Little Junes is sitting on a makeshift high chair in the hotel eating Cheerios and wondering why dad is running around the room all in a hurry.

By 5:00PM we're out the door and driving the 15 miles to Wynwood. Miami traffic gets in the way and the drive turns into an hour and so I barely make it to the fair in time for the opening.

The cleaning crew is still working and by the time the order is given to stop vacuuming, as the doors will open to the invited VIPs and press, our booth is the only one that hasn't been cleaned and the brand new black carpet is littered with tons of white debris.

The floor looks so speckled with withe dots and paint and tape chunks that it almost looks like an installation worth of a booth at Scope (the story of what happened at Scope on check-in that will come later... it's a good one).

MFA owner and director Sheila Giolitti is justifiably upset and is searching for a broom to sweep the floor as she's told that no more vacuuming is to be done because of the fire marshall is on the premises.

Ahhh...

The crowd starts pouring in, and before all the good food gets scarfed up, I grab a couple of good plates of decent finger food and a couple of generously poured tequila mixers. There is a lot of free booze being poured away.

As usual, the elegant paintings of Russian painter Alexey Terenin get a lot of attention, as does Joey Manlapaz's hyper-realistic paintings. Also grabbing some good discussion are Judith Peck's series inspired by John Rawls' Veil of Ignorance thought experiments. The press is all over John Roth's sensuous sculptures and a lot of photographs of them are taken.

An interior designer grabs a lot of attention and time from gallery owner Sheila Giolitti. She's grabbing artwork from all over the place and discussing it in terms of this and that... she does this for almost an hour before disappearing on a trek to the bathroom.

My Che Guevara video piece is getting a lot of attention - mostly from people of Cuban ancestry familiar with Che's brutal excesses. An old man with tired blue eyes tells me in Spanish that I must take the drawing down or he will. I spend some time explaining the video piece to him and he apologizes and compliments me on the work. This happens several times during the night as I spend a lot of time explaining the entrapment of a video drawing that requires a lot of intellectual capital to fully understand. This piece has already been successful beyond my wildest estimations; I am almost afraid that someone will punch me out at some point during this art fair, seeing exactly what they want to see, rather what they would see with a little guidance.

Around 8:00PM I sell my largest drawing, the first sale of the night for MFA. It's from the series of pieces on Eve. It goes to a Miami Beach collector. Almost at the same time MFA sells a gorgeous Michael Fitts trompe l'oeil of Twinkies. As usual, the two sales come almost at the same time.

Someone comes in from Scope next door, complaining that they have plywood floors; we have a brand new black carpet, and our booth's carpet looks like a litter field. Interesting what people will complain about. Someone else adds that Scope is empty of people. An hour earlier I had heard that it was packed. You go figure.

One more sale later and the night is over; somehow the interior designer is back and has Giolitti back under her domain, even outside the fair. I'm exhausted and my wife picks me up and drives me back to Hollywood. Preview day is over.

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: December 17, 2010

Call for entries for the Fifth Annual Photography Exhibition at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Entries must be received by December 17, 2010. The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is seeking submissions of any and all photographic processes, black and white or color, traditional or alternative, material or digital, time-based, performance based, any work exploring the act of photography. The exhibition will open on January 8, 2011 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. and will run through February 4, 2011. Cash awards will be announced at the opening.

The juror for the exhibition is Bruce McKaig, local artist and art educator. Bruce McKaig chairs the Photography Department at CHAW and teaches at Georgetown University and the Smithsonian Associates. He has exhibited nationally and internationally for over thirty years and every once in a while reviews a DMV show in this blog. For more information about his work, please visit his website here.

HOW: Submit the following:
➢ Three to five jpegs on a CD
➢ Image inventory list specifying title, size, medium, date and price (or insurance value)
➢ Contact info including a mailing address, phone number and email
➢ An entry fee of $25.00 for up to five images, payable to CHAW

WHERE: Please hand deliver or mail these materials to:

CHAW
545 7th Street SE
Washington DC 20003

Art Basel MB week: The day before Day One

I arrived here last Saturday, hanging out at Hollywood, less that 20 miles north of the Wynwood Arts district in Miami, where I'm helping Norfolk's Meyer Fine Art and Philly's Projects Gallery hawk some of my artwork at the Red Dot Art fair, which this year shares the block with Scope, Art Asia and the grand daddy of all Miami art fairs, Art Miami.

First night headed to my favorite restaurant on the Hollywood Beach boardwalk, the unexpectedly delicious Sushi-Thai Restaurant, where for $7.95 you can have the mouth-watering Ika Shukgata Yaki (whole grilled squid in ponzu sauce) and a cold one while looking out at the ocean.

Today I drove to Wynwood and from 11am until 7pm it was all about hanging artwork at MFA's booth. MFA is showing work by yours truly, as well as Cuban artist Sandra Ramos, Norfolk's John R. G. Roth, Robert Sites, and Shiela Giolitti, Lynnvale's Lou Gagnon, Charlottesville's Michael Fitts, Prague's Alexey Terenin, and DMV's Joey Manlapaz, Rosemary Feit Covey Andrew Wodzianski and Judith Peck.

I'm stoked about this fair because it will be the first ever showing of my first video drawing.

I had an interesting experience upon checking in, during which somehow I ended up checking in and getting badged (by mistake) into Scope, which is the big tent next to Red Dot, but more on that later.

The grand opening is tomorrow night.

Small works at MEG

Recently I had the pleasure and honor to select the current small photographic works at Multiple Exposures Gallery in Alexandria.

It's wonderful show, if I may say so, and continues this trend that I've been writing about recently, about the unique experience of artwork in a small, intimate scale.

MEG is home to superior, highly talented photographers. In the many years that this photography collective has been around (formerly known as Factory Photoworks), and in the dozens and dozens of shows that I have seen there, seldom, if ever have I seen a weak show. If you are a photography fan and you haven't been to MEG, then you're missing one of the key photography spaces in the Mid Atlantic.

Every selection in this show is a gem. In Susan Meyer's "Apple in a Vase," the sheer simplicity of the image hides the smart compositional idea behind it. The super sharp focus of the photo also does wonders to bring our attention to the subject, and (as I did) speculate why there's an apple in a flower vase.

I was also quite pleased not only with the superior set of works submitted by Michael Borek, but also with the super-modern, sharp minimalist presentation, where Borek has the small works floating in a deep white frame. I might "borrow" his presentation concept for some future works of my own!

There's also the scent of a master photographer in Grace Taylor's "Three Red Pears." Here we see what can be best described as the subject emerging not only because of its inherent beauty and recognition-factor, but also because the way the Taylor handles it, massages it and presents it; the pears emerge as exotic, sexual fruits, awaiting the first touch of the lips and the first cut of the bite.

Luise Noakes' visually textured, added onto and manipulated photos as well as the always impressive work of Danny Conant also stand out.

The Small Works show goes through January 2, 2011.

Some further considerations on the paintings of Freya Grand

By Claudia Rousseau

An exhibit entitled “Journey” of the paintings of Freya Grand was on view at the Greater Reston Art Center (GRACE) until November 12th. I had made the pilgrimage out there to see the show (and it did seem a pilgrimage from my home in Colesville, MD), and meant to write a review while the show was still up. Swamped with other work, I didn’t make it. Yet, I feel that some thoughts about this remarkable artist are in order, even now that the show has closed.

The first word that comes to mind looking at these paintings as a group might be “sublime”. When thinking about that rather slippery concept as applied to art, one might be imagining something by Turner or Caspar David Friedrich, artists who did try to embody eighteenth-century writer Edmund Burke’s aesthetic notion in actual works of art. The sublime is a feeling that involves an element of fear, something beyond the merely beautiful or picturesque precisely because of that fact. It is something that we experience in nature, as at the edge of the ocean at night when we look out at the horizon, and feel simultaneously exhilarated and overwhelmed at the greatness of what is in front of us—part of that huge sky and water—knowing full well that it would be death to move into it. The experience can occur in art as well, and this was, of course, at the core of Romanticism.

I think the most moving thing about Freya’s paintings is the way that they so completely convey this sense, and the feeling that one is experiencing what the artist experienced confronting the natural scenes represented in these large scale paintings. These are not realistic works, and, although descriptive, do not reproduce the visual record so much as the experiential one. It’s that sense that we are there with her, viewing the volcano Cotopaxi, as thrilled as Frederic Church (Freya’s art great grandfather) had been more than a century ago. Or seeing/feeling the tides pulling out at the water’s edge in Beach. Because these paintings are so full of experience, they provoke memories in the viewer of his/her own moments of the sublime. They rushed in on me as I looked, and kept me looking, and thinking for a long time.

Claudia Rousseau
Critic, member AICA

WPA 2011 Artist Directory

Deadline: February 1, 2011

The Washington Project for the Arts has announced a call for submissions for its 2011 Artist Directory.

Published bi-annually, this four-color, 8.5 x 5.5 inch directory is the definitive listing of established and emerging contemporary artists throughout the Washington region. It is seen by more than 2,000 galleries, curators, art consultants, and interested art patrons. Copies are distributed to selected art critics and other members of the press, and to museums both in the region and outside the area. The 2011 Artist Directory will also be available for sale on the WPA website and at select area retail locations at the price of $9.95.

Each participating artist will be featured on a full page (8.5 x 5.5 inches). The page will include the artist's name, a color digital image of their work, their studio address and phone number, email address, web address, and their gallery affiliation.

All current WPA members are eligible for publication in the Artist Directory. There is an additional registration fee that includes a copy of the Artist Directory. Participants who submit before December 1, 2010 can pay a discounted early registration fee of $65. After December 1, the registration fee increases to $75. The final registration deadline is February 1, 2011. No submissions will be accepted after this date.

All submissions will be handled through an online registration form on the WPA's website.

Each participating artist can upload one image to be featured on their page. Images must be submitted as .eps or .tif files in CMYK format. They must be 300dpi and as close as possible to, but no smaller than 6 inches on the longest side.

If you have any questions regarding the 2011 Artist Directory, please contact Blair Murphy, Membership Directory at bmurphy@wpadc.org or 202-234-7103 x 1.

Guess who's walking?



It's official: the little guy is walking!

Last one before Miami

On Wednesday night I attacked a 200 lb. large piece of paper with charcoal pencil and charcoal dust and, inspired by the elegant Incantation of Frida K. by Rita Braverman, I produced a large drawing - the last one which will be leaving for the Miami Art Basel week art fairs this coming Sunday.

The Incantation of Frida K. Charcoal on paper. 16.5 x 40 inches.
Five gets you ten that this drawing will be the first one to sell.

Leaving for Miami on Saturday. I have passes for almost all of the 25 or so fairs in Miami; if you'd like one, drop me an email - first come, first served. Most fairs have the grand opening on Tuesday, Nov. 30, and I even have a few VIP passes to the grand openings, which obviously I won't be able to go since I will be hanging around my work at booth B108 at Red Dot with Mayer Fine Art and/or Projects Gallery at C108, both of which will have some of my work.

See ya there!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that all of you have the luck to spend today with your families (like I am) and that we all send a positive thought for all those who can't, especially our men and women in uniform around the world.

Below is how pumpkin pies are made, source unknown, but clever!

Video meet Drawing: Final Result

As I noted before, as the next step in my own artistic endeavors, I've decided to marry video to my drawings. In my heart, I am but a storyteller, and thus this marriage, of visual descriptions of all sorts, is a natural one.

And where else to start but with one of my iconic obsessions: Che Guevara. Below is what the drawing originally looked like:


Then, after discussing all sorts of possibilities with the video tech wizards at the Washington Glass School, I took the Exacto knife to the drawing and carved a "Heart of Jesus" shape underneath Che's neck. The thorns around the heart delicately cut out. Next was the precise measuring to ensure that the small LCD video screen (guaranteed for 60,000 hours) would align and fit perfectly under the cut out heart.

Next to hunt for old newsreels of Guevara and appropriate one of them that would fit well in the vertical LCD screen and deliver a good image across the thorns. My idea was to try to deliver the dual nature of Guevara. That is the iconic face and hero to millions of people who know little about this psychopath, and also deliver a harsh reminder about the chief executioner of the Cuban Revolution and the man many Cubans know as "El Chacal de La Cabaña."

"El Chacal de La Cabaña" translates to the "Jackal of La Cabaña," although it is usually translated as the "Butcher of La Cabaña."

La Cabaña is an 18th century fortress complex located on the elevated eastern side of the harbor entrance to Havana, and the location for many of the thousands of firing squad executions which took place after January 1, 1959. Shot were former members of Batista's police, army and air force, informants, traitors, and counter-revolutionaries.

The best known story about this period (which I heard related in a Spanish language radio show in Florida) relates to how a Cuban mother went to see Che to beg for her son's life. The son was 17 years old, and was on the firing squad list, to be executed within a week. If Guevara pardoned her son, the mother begged, she would ensure that he never said or did anything against the Revolution.

Che's response was to order the immediate execution of the boy, while the mother was still in his office. His logic: now that the boy was shot, his mother would no longer have to anguish over his fate.

Two newsreel videos were then married: it starts with Che talking and it ends with the firing squad execution of one of his many victims. The gruesome scene plays in his heart. This is what the cut out hart looks like with the video screen aligned behind it.



Then the delicate art of framing the piece and aligning all the electronics on the back ($1,000 worth of electronics). This happened several times due to the usual hair or other object discovered after one frames a large piece. Once framed it looked terrific.

"It needs to be balanced on the top," offered several critical voices from talented people around me, including my wife. The loudest voice was the one in my head. I had considered doing some Romanesque writing on the top of the drawing at the very beginning, to tie it even more to a iconic, saint-like presence, but discarded the idea.

I wrapped Che and prepared it for it maiden voyage to the Miami art fairs.

The next day the voices were too loud.

I unwrapped Guevara and then with a sigh unframed it and took it all apart so that I could draw on it. This is about halfway through the process, before I took a tortillon to the words to burnish them into the paper.



The words say SANCTUS GUEVARUS CASTRUM CANIS and are the result of hours of thinking about an appropriate title that delivered the real man who was Che Guevara. It is also the result of consulting with a Latin expert who could explain the nuances of Latin language declension and other such recondite subjects. With a bit of modernized translation it means "Saint (or Holy) Guevara, Castro's Dog." But a savvy play on words delivers a second (actually prime) meaning: "Holy Guevara, Fortress Dog."

The word "Castrum" could be modernized Latin for Castro but it also means castle or fortress.

"Fortress Dog" or the "Jackal of La Cabaña Fortress." Here's the video playing in his heart:


Here is the video - the orientation is sideways so that it can play correctly in the installation within the drawing.

And here is the finished piece:


SANCTUS GUEVARUS CASTRUM CANIS. Charcoal on paper, electronics, video player and video. 27.5 x 27 inches. Circa 2010 by F. Lennox Campello
Now let's see what Miami thinks of it.

Call for Exhibition Proposals

Deadline: January 31, 2011

The Olin Art Gallery on the campus of Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, PA, is now accepting exhibition proposals in any medium for the 2011-12 academic year. Proposals may include solo or group exhibitions. Submissions must include contact information, artist statements for all participating artists, 10-20 digital images (jpg-format, 300dpi) on CD, an image list (including title, media, size, and date completed for each work), and a resume or CV. There is NO entry fee. The application deadline is January 31, 2011. For additional information, contact

Doug McGlumphy
Director, Olin Art Gallery
Washington & Jefferson College
60 S. Lincoln St.
Washington, Pa 15301.

Website: www.washjeff.edu/olin/aspx.
Email: dmcglumphy@washjeff.edu.

Proposal materials will only be returned if provided with a self-address stamped envelope with sufficient postage. This opportunity is open to all professional artists 18 or over.

Opportunity for artists

Deadline: December 20, 2010

The Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition is the second-longest running juried print and drawing competition in the country, now in its 33rd year. Every two years it features the best contemporary graphic artwork from around the globe. All accepted artwork is featured in a full-color exhibition catalogue and on the exhibition’s website.

JUROR: Robert E. Marx. Robert Marx’s long and illustrious career includes recognition as a master printmaker, an illustrator of more than a dozen books, a distinguished professor of art, and a Fulbright scholar.

AWARDS: Four cash prizes totaling $2500 will be awarded by the Juror. In addition the University as well as other local art organizations will select multiple purchase awards.

TO APPLY: Please visit their website here.

Video meet drawing



This is the back of my first ever experiment, let's say the prototype, of my new exploration on the marriage of video and drawing. I am sure lots of artists have tried and are doing this already, but it's new for me and thus exciting, and even this first prototype kicks ass.

I'll show you a pic of it from the front once it hangs in the Miami art fairs in a week or so.

When brains fart

I did one of the most professionally embarrassing things today, and the only blame that I can find is having a brain fart.

This weekend has been immensely busy with family coming from all over for Little June's baptism, which was this weekend. Because of that, I had postponed a professional engagement from the weekend to Monday. So the weekend was packed to the gills prepping for the baptism, doing it, having the reception party, etc.

Monday was to be a packed day.

First I had to drop off my cousins at the National Mall for a few hours so that I could go and do some work (more on that later). From there, my plans was to pick them off after I was done, then drop them off at national for their flight back to Miami, and then head off to Alexandria to do my professional engagement job (I'm too embarrassed to tell you what it was).

So, I braved late afternoon DC traffic, picked them off across the street from that weird flaming gold sword sculpture on Constitution Avenue (between 16th & 17th I think), turned right on 14th street, crossed the 14th street bridge relaying the Greaseman's bad taste radio joke about Air Florida that got him fired, dropped them off at National, and then... instead of getting back onto George Washington Parkway for a nice, easy short drive to Old Town Alexandria, as it had been my plan... the cell phone rings, and I pick it up. And then my brain goes onto another realm and I go on automatic and start driving home.

After brutal traffic at that time, I get home to discover, to my horror, that I had skipped on a very special task that I had been looking forward to for the longest time.

Feh! Seldom has a man been so embarrassed without at least a decent excuse.

WPA 2011 Artist Directory

Deadline: February 1, 2011

The Washington Project for the Arts has announced a call for submissions for its 2011 Artist Directory.

Published bi-annually, this four-color, 8.5 x 5.5 inch directory is the definitive listing of established and emerging contemporary artists throughout the Washington region. It is seen by more than 2,000 galleries, curators, art consultants, and interested art patrons. Copies are distributed to selected art critics and other members of the press, and to museums both in the region and outside the area. The 2011 Artist Directory will also be available for sale on the WPA website and at select area retail locations at the price of $9.95.

Each participating artist will be featured on a full page (8.5 x 5.5 inches). The page will include the artist's name, a color digital image of their work, their studio address and phone number, email address, web address, and their gallery affiliation.

All current WPA members are eligible for publication in the Artist Directory. There is an additional registration fee that includes a copy of the Artist Directory. Participants who submit before December 1, 2010 can pay a discounted early registration fee of $65. After December 1, the registration fee increases to $75. The final registration deadline is February 1, 2011. No submissions will be accepted after this date.

All submissions will be handled through an online registration form on the WPA's website.

Each participating artist can upload one image to be featured on their page. Images must be submitted as .eps or .tif files in CMYK format. They must be 300dpi and as close as possible to, but no smaller than 6 inches on the longest side.

If you have any questions regarding the 2011 Artist Directory, please contact Blair Murphy, Membership Directory at bmurphy@wpadc.org or 202-234-7103 x 1.

What's new Buenos Aires?

(The line is from this Evita song; you'll see why in a minute... sorta). And thus, I've decided to take the next step with my artwork.

For years and years, after I graduated from the University of Washington School of Art in beautiful Seattle, I painted. Because I was mostly living in Europe at the time (Spain and Scotland, with a long stint in between in Lebanon and postgraduate school in Monterey), my artwork focused on what was around me and I painted.

When I returned to the US for good in 1992, I also abandoned painting and returned to my love for drawing. A couple of thousand drawings later, I am ready to take my drawing to the next level.

In my heart, I am a storyteller. I like to use my drawing to push ideas, historical points, narrative, agendas, questions and even fantasies. My series of "Written on the Body" drawings, such as the one below (that's the piece selected by Mera Rubell for last year's WPA auction at the Katzen Museum), I told stories by figuratively decorating the bodies of people with writing anchored in current events, literature, history, etc.

"Age of Obama - Nobel Peace Prize" Charcoal on Paper. 16x12 inches.
I going to expand on that storytelling driving force and here's how I'm going to do it: I'm going to marry drawing with video imagery.
First there will be baby steps. The initial idea is simple. I am going to do a drawing much like this one below, of the psychopath Che Guevara, sanctified of his sins by an adoring public who has little idea who the man really was.


San Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Lynch, known to most of the world as 'Ché' and to many Cubans as 'El Chacal de La Cabaña'
F. Lennox Campello. Charcoal and Conte on paper. 15 x 10 inches.
In his chest there will be heart much like the Sacred Heart of Jesus from Catholic imagery and tradition. There will be a cutout within this heart, a window into the heart if you will, and visible there, through the hole in his heart, will be a video, playing in a continuous loop showing newsreel video of Guevara reciting a poem, then the video ends with the public firing squad execution of one of the many Cubans that El Chacal de la Cabaña had killed in 1959.

A simple story about an immensely complex man, told in a video drawing.





Muchas gracias to my good friend Tim Tate, video sculptor extraordinaire for giving me the encouragement (and technical acumen) to proceed in this direction.

PS - If you don't get the Buenos Aires banner: Che was Argentinean, not Cuban. Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Lynch was born on May 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. An Argentine blue blood, Che was the son of Celia de la Serna, member of one of Argentina's high society families. His mother's lineage was of undiluted, pure Spaniard blood, and one of her ancestors was a Spanish viceroy of colonial South America for the crown of Spain. His father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch was the descendant of both Spanish and Irish nobility, and his parents Roberto Guevara Castro and Ana Lynch had been born in California, where their families had migrated from Argentina during the California Gold Rush. Yes, Che had American grandparents.