Tomorrow: Victoria F. Gaitán opens at Conner

With 35 new images from one of the most talented new artists around, this is sure to be a mind-popping exhibition - plan to be there!

Exhibition Dates: November 5 - December 17, 2011
Opening Reception: November 5th @ 6 - 8pm

Exhibition / Opening Location:
Conner Contemporary Art
1358 Florida Ave, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202/588 - 8750
info@connercontemporary.com

New Gallery

ArtSpace 109 is a new gallery venue in the DMV.

The gallery is located at 109 N. Fairfax Street, 3rd level, Alexandria, VA 22314, Tel: 703.548.7729.

Their first show, titled “About a Dog” showcases the painting and drawings by the super-talented Ben Ferry. The opening reception and meet the artist is Friday, November 11, from 7pm - 9pm and the show runs from November 1 thru November 30, 2011.

Back in the good ole days before Eugene Robinson began the destruction of the visual arts coverage in the Washington Post (while he was editor of the Style section), a new gallery opening in the DMV would merit a little ink in the WaPo.

We'll see.

Meanwhile: How about it WCP?

Save these angels

The below two sculptures were part of the Community of Angels Charity in Los Angeles in 2001. The two angels are Angel Virtue by Phoebe Beasley and Angel Peace by Ali Golkar.

Because of some urgent issues, these two life sized sculptures are being offered by the owners to any one who wants them in an urgent plea to save them from being destroyed, as they need to be moved this weekend from their storage space... or destroyed.

The two angel sculptures would make a great art statement not only to an ex-Angeleno, but to any lover of art. Please, help me find a home for these angels in someone's home or backyard or public art space!

Whoever wants to acquire and save these two sculptures would have to pick them up this weekend.

Email me for details! lenny at lennycampello dot com!!

The Art Festival Directory

The most important business decision an artist makes is choosing the art festivals in which to participate. The process can be difficult, frustrating...and time consuming. And trying to compare many festivals can often be a confusing process, with subjective reviews and recommendations that may not relate to an artist's needs.

That's where The Art Festival Directory with Show-Rate comes in.

The Art Festival Directory includes detailed, complete information on more than 1,200 festivals nationwide--and growing daily. The information is provided by the festivals themselves--with up to 50 separate elements in each detailed listing. So local DMV area festival organizers should check this out and ensure their festival is listed.

The Directory's search capabilities are robust: artists can use one or more top-line search criteria, retrieve summaries, then look at each festival's details. Artists can view their search results in listing, calendar and map formats...or all three!

And, yes, it's all completely free!

Each festival that chooses to be included in our exclusive evaluation system also carries in its listing a SHOW-RATE score, from 0 to 100, that tells artists how the festival compares with other festivals in 27 separate categories.

A festival's SHOW-RATE score is calculated by comparing its characteristics with those voted by artists nationwide as their choices for what makes the perfect show. No individual show reviews are included, nor are sales for individual artists.

SHOW-RATE has a single goal: to give artists an authoritative, comprehensive and easily understood tool to use in evaluating festivals for themselves. SHOW-RATE is free, too.

Here's the link: www.theartfestivaldirectory.com.

Opportunity for Performance Artists

Soapbox is a new performance art series at Hillyer Art Space. They host a monthly event, showing 2-3 performances in an evening, with opportunity for additional performances. Their open call is not limited to work that fits in an evening performance dynamic, they encourage all types of performance to submit proposals.

The series seeks to bolster and expand the performance art community in and around the DC area and beyond, based on the idea that if a platform is presented, new performance will be created.

They are currently accepting submissions on a rolling basis, open to all kinds of performance, from individuals and collaborations. There are no prerequisites for submitting work, and they encourage artists of all media to consider their work in terms of performance.

Students are more than welcome to send proposals to our general open call, and they will also host a student performance event in the Spring.

The next Soapbox is on November 17, 6-9pm featuring the artists Carolina Mayorga and a collaboration between Michelle Gomez and Jonathan Wille. Michelle and Jonathan's performance will take place in a set-installation they will construct in a smaller gallery at Hillyer, which will be up through the month of November. They will have additional performances during the First Friday opening on 11/4 and on 11/12, both 6-9pm.

Submissions can be sent to gallery@artsandartists.org and any questions about submitting work or the series can be directed to eamesa@artsandartists.org

For more information visit this website.

Some things never change... but they will!

(Via)

Over 15 Cuban pro-democracy activists have been brutally beaten and arrested outside of a Santa Clara hospital, where the lives of two hunger strikers hang in the balance.

Last week, Rolando Ferrer Espinosa and Alcides Rivera Rodríguez were taken to a hospital in the central city of Santa Clara, pursuant to more than 30 days on a hunger strike demanding an end to the Castro regime's violence against peaceful protesters.

Pro-democracy activists have been camped out in front of the hospital, day and night, concerned for the well-being of the hunger strikers.

Amongst those arrested were Rivera Rodriguez's own wife, Idania Yánez Contreras, as well as Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez), Yris Pérez Aguilera, Damaris Moya Portieles, Julio Columbié Batista and Yanisbel Valido.

The end of the brutal Castro dictatorship is near... they know it too, and it won't be pretty.

Reagan statue will be unveiled today

The 9 foot tall statue of Ronaldus Magnus at DCA was designed by Chas Fagan, who also has created statues of Reagan that stand in the U.S. Capitol, at Grosvenor Square in London and at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

Five gets you ten that art critics will hate it (the statue that is...).

I like this

I really like the way the WCP has been letting Lou Jacobson review all kinds of shows besides photography... read some recent reviews here.

When you really, really love a piece of art...

When you really, really love a piece of art... You get it tattoed onto your body, right? Here's my original drawing, "Coming up for a breath", circa 2004 or so, and etched into 18 intaglio etchings, all of which sold out in that year. And here's the hip tattoo done by a fan of the drawing, to celebrate a special achievement in her life: All I have to say is that I am honored...

Strauss Fellowships

The Arts Council of Fairfax has announced the fifth annual Strauss Fellowships for individual artists.

These grants recognize professional working artists’ achievements and their demonstrated history of accomplishments; they promote artists’ continued pursuit of their creative work. Artists in all disciplines including visual arts, creative writing, theatre, dance performance and choreography, film and new media, music composition and performance are eligible to apply. Applicants must reside in Fairfax County.

Named for Bill Strauss (1947-2007), gifted writer, co-founder of the Capitol Steps and the Cappies, the Strauss Fellowships are an investment in the sustained growth and development of the arts in Fairfax County as well as a way to honor artists’ commitment to an artistic discipline, their professional activity in Fairfax County, and their contributions to the quality of life in Fairfax County. This is the fifth year the fellowships will be offered. Guidelines and application materials are available online at www.artsfairfax.org.

The application deadline is January 18, 2012. The Arts Council will hold a free grant writing workshop for interested applicants on November 12, 2011 from 10am to 12pm at 4022 Hummer Road, Annandale, VA 22003.

The Strauss Fellowships are awarded through a competitive grant program and recipients are determined by their work’s merit. No specific project needs to be carried out with the funds granted; Strauss Fellowships award outstanding achievement for work already completed. Awards range from $1,000-$5,000, and in previous years, up to eleven fellowships have been awarded.

NYC NOW in Bethesda

NYC NOW is an exhibition of new work by 5 contemporary artists living in New York City and it is Morton Fine Art's (MFA) fourth *a pop-up project.

The exhibition features new artworks by nationally renowned, New York based, contemporary artists Margaret Bowland, Kenichi Hoshine, Choichun Leung, Jules Arthur and Jason Sho Green. *a pop-up project will be on display from November 11th through December 6th 2011 at Gallery B located at 7700 Wisconsin Ave # E, Bethesda, MD 20814-6530. The opening reception will be held on Friday, November 11th from 6 - 9 pm. Images can be previewed online at www.mortonfineart.com and www.apopupproject.com.

Artomatic Frederick

Artomatic Frederick

I finally made it to Artomatic Frederick, all 27,000+ square feet of space at the former FCPS Central Office building at 115 E. Church Street, Frederick, Maryland and like all Artomatics of the past, I was not disappointed in the trek, and like all previous Artomatics, I think that I've discovered some new artists whose work is new to me, and whom I think have the potential to use AOM Frederick as the initial stepping stone into other art things.

As an artist, art dealer and critic, I think, well... I know, that I am better equipped and trained and experienced than most "regular" art critics to visit a gargantuan art extravaganza such as the AOM shows are.

The real reason that most "regular" critics don't like AOM is because they lack the formation and depth to see beyond what is hanging on the walls. Because their experience is often limited to reviewing or visiting a gallery or a specific show in a museum, their sensory capacity is quickly overloaded when they pass the 100th or 200th artist with less than noticeable work in a postmodern world where everything and anything is art. Thus once those senses are overloaded, it all looks in the same puerile category to them and they fail to see what most of us see. After a rookie critic is exposed to 20-25 photographers doing close-ups of flowers, all in one show, it is actually quite hard for those same tired critical eyes not to be poisoned into giving all photographers a failing grade.

Not all critics lack the mental capacity and visionary depth, but most do - including the guy who once gave AOM a horrible review on air in a radio show and later it was discovered that he had actually never seen the show... remember that?

By past AOM scales, this Frederick version is small, only about 27,000 square feet and about 300 artists; by most art scales, this is a gigantic art show, with extremes as diverse as the crazies on the left and right of the political scale in the USA... well, maybe not that extreme.

Every AOM I try to pick someone whom I think is the rising star of that AOM, if you search through this blog you will find names whom are now well-known DMV area artists and who once took their initial steps via AOM.

It didn't take me long to find this AOM's top pick - his work is on the ground floor - and after patiently walking through all floors and basement, I am sure that the singularly unique video work of Richard Schellenberg wins my first vote for top pick of AOM Frederick.

Tucked away in a corner of the first floor, Schellenberg has two videos playing in two old, vintage TVs. In one of them, a young boy tells a dream story of his dream involving flying on Superman's shoulders and directing the Man of Steel's movements. The storytelling is addictively odd and grabs the listener, but it is the video that stops viewers on their tracks. In a very sophisticated marriage of video morphing, Schellenberg has created a young boy riding on the shoulders and arms of George Reeves, the Black & White Superman from the TV series of the 1950s who was either murdered or committed suicide in 1959.

Schellenberg's technical mastery of video morphing, coupled with the odd, but sensitive storyline, as well as the vintage presentation, make this one of the best works of video art that I have ever seen.

Also on the ground floor I liked the sensitive portraiture of Jamie Gerhold. They are superbly executed technically, but also manage to grasp that unique sense of personality from each subject that is so difficult to achieve in this most challenging of art genres. Note to Jamie: You need to enter the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and the deadline is Monday!

Still on the first deck, I liked the large charcoals and painterly pieces by Walter Bartman, Director and Founder of the Yellow Barn, and certainly not an "emerging artist" in a sense, since he has taught art in the Bethesda, Maryland area for over thirty years and his work is in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden Library Collections.

Painter Phyllis Mayes also stands out by her very well executed set of self portraits, nearly all of which explore some odd facial expression.

They are a genuine delight to the eye, both as a painterly exercise and also as an intelligent delivery vehicle for highly personal imagery presented for us to admire.

Note to Phyllis: You too need to enter the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and the deadline is Monday!

Last cool find on this floor was David Hagen's funny illustrations depicting all ranges of subjects, including my favorite, a rather large sized Batman, possibly after the Dark Knight discovered carbohydrates.

The second floor was a little tougher for the critic in me. There is some very decent pottery on this floor, and some very cool and interesting ideas, some delivered better than others. Among the best are Roger Cutler's brutal and funny assault on postmodernism.

His "Domestic object with natural patina" at $10,000 can easily be visualized in the top white cube galleries of New York and London, and even in the early days of Art Basel Miami Beach and Pulse Art Fair, before those fairs' directions were rudely re-directed by the tough economy and they both made an U-turn for art that stands a chance of actually being acquired by a collector - or am I the only one who has noticed how both ABMB and Pulse are now dominated by figurative/representational art?

Deborah Winram collects objects and then presents them in jars - as a set, they offer a powerful image. The presentation reminded me of a very similar display at the second AOM ever - the one that was held at the former Lowe's space in Tenleytown - where an artist whose name escapes me had a whole wall of jars with these cool transparencies of her photography inside each jar.

Wingram's power also lies in the presentation, which as a whole give us an insight into the found or collected objects displayed as art. I must wonder, however, on the dilution of this powerful piece if the pieces are meant to be acquired individually, as that would seem to dilute its associative presence.

The third floor's favorites were started by Keyleigh Montgomery's back lit photographic landscapes, but it was Jenny Wallace who wins this floor with a super flexing of artistic installation skills with her multi-effect installation in a very cool, somewhat macabre odd room to the left of the performing stage.

The basement is dominated by the exceptional work of Margaret Dowell and here she displays her "Sidi Flowchart" series. In these powerful pieces, Dowell depicts the effects of alcohol addition and eventual recovery on her friend Sidi, from childhood to the present. In the hands of a master painter such as Dowell is, the storyline delivers a punch to the visual senses that is hard to forget.

AOM Frederick is on through November 6 - go see it this weekend! The hours are Wednesdays & Thursdays, 11 am - 9 pm, Fridays & Saturdays, 11 am - 12 am and Sundays 12 pm - 6 pm.

Do this this weekend

Go to Artomatic Frederick.

Victoria F. Gaitán at Conner

With 35 new images from one of the most talented new artists around, this is sure to be a mind-popping exhibition - plan to be there!

Exhibition Dates: November 5 - December 17, 2011
Opening Reception: November 5th @ 6 - 8pm

Exhibition / Opening Location:
Conner Contemporary Art
1358 Florida Ave, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202/588 - 8750
info@connercontemporary.com

Kristin Skees at MFA

He sez it may be Karma

What happened to my good bud John Anderson has to be on your reading list - so read it here.

Wake effects

When a ship moves across the water, depending on a variety of factors, it leaves a wake that can be discernible, in some manner or form, for a very long time and through a very long distance.

Doing an art fair is the same, and art fair wake effects can sometimes take over a year to settle down.

At the recent (e)merge art fair, my Virginia dealer, Mayer Fine Art (who did really well at the fair), sold my top piece in the room - an embedded video piece - to a very well-known DMV area art collector couple.

The wake effect from that sale just reached me, as I am now in the process of closing a sale with another art collecting couple (not a DMV area collector), who saw that work at the home of the buyers, inquired about it, got a glowing recommendation and now I am about to be acquired by someone on the list of the top 200 art collectors in the world.

In case you are wondering: yes... I am bragging and thanks USS (e)merge!

Alexandra Silverthorne

For the past three years, my good friend Alexandra Silverthorne has been working on MidNights, a series of nocturnal photographs exploring ideas around space, landscape, and proprioception. In November, she will be exhibiting a selection of these photographs at harmon art lab (HAL) in Washington, DC. This exhibition will coincide with a book launch of MidNights: photographs + writings.

The Exhibition
Opening Reception: Friday, November 11, 6pm-9pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, November 19, 2pm-3pm
Book Launch: Wednesday, November 30, 7pm

The exhibition will run from November 11-December 3. MidNights will be exhibited in the solo space while installation artist/architect Ira Tattelman will be taking over HAL's project space.

The Book
This 76-page book presents the complete collection of the 41 MidNights photographs along with the series of short writings. The writings are based on personal experiences and touch upon the different ideas that fueled the project. The book also includes an introductory essay by Jayme McLellan as well as a conversation with Rebecca Duclos.

The book can be previewed and purchased online here or at harmon art lab in Washington, DC during the run of the exhibition.

Calling all curators

This is an opportunity to submit a group proposal for exhibition, workshops, programs, and lectures at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Here are the submission details for the galleries and black box theatre. They are especially interested in multi-cultural themes that would appeal to the diverse and global community in Howard County, Maryland.

Additional inquiries can also be directed to Coleen West, Executive Director Howard County Arts Council/Howard County Center for the Arts. email: coleen@hocoarts.org and phone: (410) 313-ARTS. They are always open to collaborative programming and partnership relationships as well at the Howard County Arts Council.

FotoWeek DC = Free Corcoran

In association with FotoWeek DC, the Corcoran Gallery of Art will be offering free admission, and will remain open on Monday, Nov. 7 and Tuesday, Nov 8 from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. - usually the Corc would be closed those days.

The Corcoran will also host two of the FotoWeek launch parties. FotoWeek itself begins at 5 p.m. at 1800 L Street and then moves on to the Corcoran at 8:30 p.m., with a cocktails, food, and music party.

For photographers who would like a professional commentary of their work, Portfolio Review Sessions will be held at the Corcoran on Nov. 12 between 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.- 5 p.m. The reviews will be done by curators, professional photographers, and photo editors, each taking 20-minute sessions to review individual portfolios.

More info on the reviews here.

Tickets for the Portfolio Review Session are $75 (student discounts available)and tickets to the launch party are $55 and include admission to both the opening parties at FotoWeek Central and the Corcoran.

Aqua Art Fair

Pretty psyched that my video drawings will be at the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach this coming December - almost right across the street from ABMB.

Anybody who will be in Miami for the art fairs and wants a free pass, please drop me an email.

Kristy Simmons at ACP

Artist Reception:
5:30pm - 7:30pm, Monday, November 7th

Artist Talk - 6:30pm, November 7th
Show ends May 4, 2012

See it live at show or order online:here.

American Center for Physics
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740

O'Sullivan on Artomatic

Read it in the WaPo here.

Illustrators at Montgomery College: Brad Holland Talk!





Brad Holland is one of the most influential illustrators of the 20th Century. The New York Times, in nominating him for a Pulitzer Prize, wrote that his work goes "beyond the moment to illuminate a general condition universal in space and time. The images are sometimes brutal, but the feeling is almost always compassionate." The Washington Post has called him "an undisputed star of American Illustration," and the editors of RSVP, the artists' directory, voted him "the one artist, who in our opinion, has had the single greatest impact on the illustration field during the last twenty five years." Writing in Print magazine, critic Steven Heller concluded, "as [Jackson] Pollock redefined plastic art, Holland has radically changed the perception of illustration."

In recent years, Brad Holland has emerged as the seminal voice illuminating the complex and shifting business landscape for illustrators and their diminishing control over their copyrights and businesses. He is one of the founders of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America (IPA), the first organization in the history of American visual authorship to seek to implement a rational collective rights clearance administration for illustrators’ copyrights.

WHEN: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011, 8 - 9 p.m.

WHERE: Montgomery College School of Art + Design (Takoma Park Campus)
The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center Auditorium
930 King Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Tomorrow night: Percy Martin

Georgetown's Parish Gallery will showcase one of the DMV's most venerable and influential printmakers, Percy Martin, whose exhibition entitled “Bushmen Dreams” will open with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Friday, October 21st and will run through November 15, 2011.

Percy Martin is a printmaker and teacher of art who has lived in the Washington, DC area since 1947. For over 25 years, he has been quietly working on a series of lush and technically complex prints detailing the daily lives and rituals of the Bushmen, a mythological people and culture born of Martin’s imagination. He studied printmaking and graphic design at the Corcoran Gallery of Art where he received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1966. In 1975 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded him with an Artist-in-Residence.

Mr. Martin taught private classes in etching and has been the Director of the W.D. Printmaking Workshop in Washington, DC, since 1947. He taught at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center, University of Maryland, Corcoran School of Art, printmaking to inmates at Lorton Prison, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and finally the Sidwell Friends School, from which he is now retired.

Mr. Martin has shown his work widely in the U.S., Russia, the Ukraine, and Africa. His works have been in traveling exhibitions of the Smithsonian Institution and are found in numerous private collections and the collections of the Washington Post, University of Maryland, and the National Collection of American Art.

There are a lot of DMV area artists, mostly those who were schooled around here, who received the spark of creativity from this talented artist, and I know that no art collection with any sort of focus on DMV artists, is complete without a Percy Martin in the collection.

Don't miss this show.

Postcards from the Edge



The 14th Annual Postcards from the Edge: A benefit for Visual AIDS
January 6-8, 2012
Hosted by Cheim & Read

PREVIEW PARTY: Friday, January 6, 2012 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
The only opportunity to see the entire exhibition. No sales. $85 admission.

BENEFIT SALE: $85 each.
Saturday, January 7, 2012 from 10:00 - 6:00 (*Buy four and get a bonus fifth)
Sunday, January 8, 2012 from 12:00 - 4:00 (*Buy two and get a bonus thirdhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif)
Over 1500 anonymous displayed postcard-sized masterpieces.

Postcards From the Edge is a Visual AIDS benefit show and sale of original, postcard-sized artworks by established and emerging artists. All artwork is exhibited anonymously. While buyers receive a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until after purchased. With the playing field leveled, all participants can take home a piece by a famous artist, or someone who is just making their debut. Nonetheless, collectors walk away with a piece of art they love, knowing that the money raised will support HIV prevention and AIDS awareness.

Click here for more info.

Visual AIDS invites artists to donate a 4" x 6" original work on paper for our Postcards From the Edge exhibition and benefit sale. Painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and mixed media are all welcome. Artists must be 18 years or older to participate. One entry per artist.

Click here for information how you can participate.

DEADLINE: Postmark Friday, December 9, 2011

At Gallery Har Shalom

Gallery Har Shalom announces the opening of the show titled "Abstract and Real, or Not." The show features the work of five artists--Felisa Federman, Potomac, MD; Amy Kincaid, Takoma Park, MD; Julia Latein-Kimmig, Potomac, MD; Nancy Pollack, Columbia, MD, and Joyce Zipperer, Springfield, VA.

The mixed media abstracts of Felisa Federman address the human struggle to understand the natural world around them. The work presents concepts including identity, classification and powerlessness. Her concern with “inventory control” of individuals resonates visibly throughout her work.

Collage abstracts created by Amy Kincaid are experiences in structured improvisation, influenced by and in the tradition of some forms of post-modern dance and performance. They also could be described as mixing or sampling, because they involve combining, reorienting, layering, and altering unrelated snips of existing images with paint and drawing, creating layers that are built, bit by bit, over time.
Julia Latein-Kimmig displays acrylic paintings that focus on a lively exchange of line and form, old and new, plain and color, starting off with a dialogue on canvas. She enjoys the process of introducing neglected, often discarded remnants of art and infusing them with new life by combining them with fresh new line work and brushstrokes.

Nancy Pollack crafts striking wearable necklaces with silver wire using crocheting and knitting techniques, including an antique tool for tube knitting. Her knitted wire work has been published in Belle Armoire magazine. Her current artistic challenge is to see how many different things she can make with a knitted wire tube.
As a sculptor, Joyce Zipperer presents work that focuses on women's shoes and adornments. Her work addresses how women, throughout history, have been lured and influenced by trends in fashion, often discounting comfort and health issues. Using metal to create the shoes underscores an uncomfortable fit of an alluring or humorous style that we simply must wear. The hats of metal and mixed media refer to styles from vintage to present day. Wearable they are not.

For further information and directions, please call the synagogue office at 301-299-7087.

Gallery Har Shalom, Har Shalom Congregation, 11510 Falls Road, Potomac, MD.

Did anybody?

Did anybody happened to take any photos of the three people who were climbing the USAF Memorial today?

I was driving by when I noticed that there were two bodies near the top of one of the three spires. About an hour later, when I was driving by on the return leg, there was a third body and all three were on a different spire.

I assumed that they were either cleaning it or inspecting it for earthquake damage? In any event, it looked really surreal and I wished that I had a camera at the time.

Mystery Painting

Can you help identify this painting?

Mark Jenkins

The last few weeks, at openings, at (e)merge and other artsy hangouts, I've noted that one interesting item of discussion has been the drastic and (I would add) positive change that Mark Jenkins' galleries writing in the Washington Post has brought to what had been not only mostly a negative view of nearly everything and anything that DMV galleries hung on their walls, but a very small universe of galleries covered by the former freelancer that used to write the Galleries column.

Jenkins has brought a refreshing set of new eyes (new but experienced, as this guy has been writing about DMV culture for years for the WCP) to the WaPo's visual arts coverage, and I for one, welcome this new byline to the Post's scant coverage of the DMV gallery scene.

And... this Mark Jenkins is not the same Mark Jenkins who is the famous street artist.

Keeping time...


(From the archives) Even the Man of Steel has to keep time somehow... and now we know where Clark Kent keeps his clothes after a quick changeover.

Some more

Sold several drawings at Bethesda Row today - gorgeous day! Come by tomorrow...

At gallery plan b

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Friday, October 28, 2011

The gorgeous BlackRock Center For the Arts is accepting entries for their October 2012 - August 2013 exhibit season.

You can download the prospectus here.

Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years and over residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.

Special Consideration: Artists who are willing to conduct a lecture or workshop for a BlackRock standard fee will receive special consideration during the selection process.

About the Gallery: BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery is 1500 square feet of exquisite gallery space located in Germantown, Maryland. With its high neutral walls and beautiful windows strategically placed it allows in just the right amount of natural light. The windows are located above the walls which makes it an ideal space for fiber art. BlackRock Center for the Arts takes pride in the eclectic group of artists we have exhibited in the gallery since 2002.

Jurors: Jack Rasmussen: Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC.

Jodi Walsh: mixed medium artist, curator, national speaker, owner and Gallery Director of Gallery 555 in Washington, DC.

Carol Brown Goldberg: professional fine artist and lecturer, Carol has been exhibtiing her work locally and internationally over the past 36 years.

O Project this Saturday

A full scale version of Rosemary Feit Covey's The 0 Project will be mounted for the MoveOn.org March this Saturday. 200 masks will be distributed and two full-sized banners will be a part of the march.

What is the 0 Project you ask?

The 0 Project is an interactive participatory political art project from the mind of Rosemary Feit Covey, involving both local and global participation. The project has wrapped buildings, been projected on walls, and acted as creative catalyst for dancers, poets, musicians, and social activists. The 0 Project expresses voicelessness but also the inverse, a howl of protest. The project is designed to demonstrate that when art acts as a catalyst and invites responses, the ensuing dialogue becomes a form of art in itself. The 0 Project is collaborative by nature and open to all who wish to participate.

This weekend!


Bethesda Row Arts Festival

October 15 from 11am - 6pm and October 16 from 11am - 5pm

The 14th annual Bethesda Row Arts Festival will be held October 15th and 16th. This year the festival features the work of 185 leading fine artists and crafters from around the country. Media includes ceramics, drawings, fabrics, glass, graphics, jewelry, metalwork, paintings, pastels, photography, printmaking, sculpture, wood and 2D and 3D mixed media. The streets around Around 7200 Woodmont Ave. in Bethesda within walking distance of the Metro.

You've just gotta read this!

Paula Cleggett, the Associate Director for Policy of The Curb Center for Arts, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University, recently spent some time looking around the Greater Washington, DC area art scene and has just published one of the best articles, from the perspective of an outsider looking in, about the Greater DMV art scene that I've ever read:

Like most cities, artists, gallery owners, critics, curators, collectors and the curious weave a nebulous network to sustain a creative community. Unlike most cities, the DC art scene operates in the shadows of national monuments, free national art museums and internationally recognized art centers. Cities across the U.S. battle against the pervading myth that you can only make it as an artist in a culture-rich metropolis like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. True, DC has distinct offerings and challenges…but clear indications show that emerging artists don’t settle for DC, they choose DC.

This article explores:

How well does the region nurture emerging visual artists?
What efforts lead the way in opening new markets for local artists?
Are public and private support structures in place to attract and retain talented visual artists?
What does a Washington-based artist have to do to get noticed?

Read the whole article here.

New art gallery to open in DC

Lauren Gentile, longtime art professional and former director of Irvine Contemporary, sets up shop in Washington, D.C. After serving as the Director of Irvine Contemporary and working in the art profession for 13 years, heading to New York or Los Angeles, might be the conventional wisdom. Instead, inspired by Washington’s promise of becoming a major national platform for emerging and contemporary art, Gentile is committing her considerable talent, energy, and creativity to opening her own gallery, Contemporary Wing.

“For awhile now, there have been rumblings about the Washington’s burgeoning arts community breaking through and becoming a force for contemporary art, and I want to be a part of that change. The Rubell’s plan to open a contemporary art museum in the nation’s capitol, the recent success of the (e)merge art fair, and a committed art community, all convince me that the time is now,” according to Ms. Gentile, “Washington is an ideal destination for contemporary art, and I am prepared to invest in that vision.”

With the rounding support of her colleagues, artists and collectors, Gentile will launch Contemporary Wing on November 1. While Gentile is in the process of finalizing her Northwest Washington location, Contemporary Wing will be open for sales and appraisals, at www.contemporarywing.com.

The first exhibition, a multi-work video installation designed to run concurrently with Art Basel, Miami Beach, will take place on December 1-4, 2011 in Miami, Florida. For “Ivory Tower” artist Tiffany Carbonneau will project an original art work onto the exterior of the Marquis Miami, where the exhibit will be held. Her site specific projection will be visible from the surrounding area as well as from I-95 North and South bound, I-395, I-195, and the Venetian Causeway. Once inside the exhibit, viewers will be immersed in a conceptual and humorous feast of sight and sound. Gentile is co-curating the exhibit with New York curator Ginger Shulick, of Big Deal Arts. Participating artists include: Nia Burks, Sean Capone, Tiffany Carbonneau, Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), Paul Moakley, Phillip David Stearns and Alex Villar.

For more information about the gallery and exhibitions, please visit contemporarywing.com or contact info@contemporarywing.com

New Arts Commissioner

Congrats to Lionell Thomas, who has just been appointed as the new Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Thomas' considerable experience and deep insider knowledge of the DC art scene are alone a great qualifier for this job, but what I like best is that this new Commissioner worked his way up from the bottom to the top.

Congrats!

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 7, 2011

The State University of New York at Cortland announces a call to artists for a group exhibition at the Dowd Gallery, January 18–March 2, 2012. Open to all artists nationally and internationally, to submit work for consideration that represents innovation in concept, subject or media use. All work must be the original work of the applicant, suitable for gallery installation. Full color publication produced.

Juried by committee of 5-9 professional artists. No entrance fee.

Artists are responsible for shipping fees. Selected artists may be invited for a subsequent short term visiting artist program with undergraduate studio art students including presentation of work, discussion and studio visit. The selected artist will receive a stipend of $1000 for his/her time and travel expenses. For more information contact Bryan Thomas at dowd.gallery@cortland.edu or visit the gallery website here.

On Columbus Day

If you think that you know early American history (I thought I did), then read A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz and prepare to be left not only open-mouthed but well informed and armed with a spectacular knowledge of early American history seldom discussed in school.

"By the time the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal"

- Michael Gannon
Prof. of History
University of Florida

Bad Art Destruction Party

Time: Thursday, October 13 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:
Warehouse Theater
1017 7th St NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Facebook details and RSVP here.

Tsk... tsk...

Billions of dollars in arts funding is serving a mostly wealthy, white audience that is shrinking while only a small chunk of money goes to emerging art groups that serve poorer communities that are more ethnically diverse, according to a report being released Monday.

Read the AP story here.

Two will be heading for Miami

The Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series has teamed up with Russell Simmons’ Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation to search for a new generation of cutting-edge visual artists and the show now at International Visions Gallery, showcases winning work by Washington semi-finalists.

Across all markets, a total of twenty artists will advance to the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Finale Competition exhibition, held during Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2011. From that group, two finalists will be invited to exhibit at Rush Arts Gallery in New York City in February 2012.

Artists in this DC exhibition include Michael Anthony Brown, Zoma Wallace, Shaunté Gates, Julian Lytle, Farah Ahmed, Rob Chester, Edward Savwoir, Miles Burrell, Osereime J. Aimua, David Allen Harris, Cheryl Edwards, Jay Coleman, S. Ross Brown, Al Burts, Nicole Marshall, Ann Marie Williams, Victor Ekpuk, George Kochev, Eusebio Choque, Cedric Baker, Jesi Pace-Berkeley, Larry Cook, Michael Singletary, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Leonard Harris, Lawrence Charity, Helina Metaferia, Stephen Evans, Keah Fryar, Richard Thompson, Donivan York, W. James Taylor, and Tanekeya Word.

The cool thing for me is that I'm only familiar with the work of 3-4 of those named above. For information, visit the gallery’s Web site.

Percy Martin coming to Parish Gallery

Georgetown's Parish Gallery will showcase one of the DMV's most venerable and influential printmakers, Percy Martin, whose exhibition entitled “Bushmen Dreams” will open with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Friday, October 21st and will run through November 15, 2011.

Percy Martin is a printmaker and teacher of art who has lived in the Washington, DC area since 1947. For over 25 years, he has been quietly working on a series of lush and technically complex prints detailing the daily lives and rituals of the Bushmen, a mythological people and culture born of Martin’s imagination. He studied printmaking and graphic design at the Corcoran Gallery of Art where he received a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1966. In 1975 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded him with an Artist-in-Residence.

Mr. Martin taught private classes in etching and has been the Director of the W.D. Printmaking Workshop in Washington, DC, since 1947. He taught at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center, University of Maryland, Corcoran School of Art, printmaking to inmates at Lorton Prison, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and finally the Sidwell Friends School, from which he is now retired.

Mr. Martin has shown his work widely in the U.S., Russia, the Ukraine, and Africa. His works have been in traveling exhibitions of the Smithsonian Institution and are found in numerous private collections and the collections of the Washington Post, University of Maryland, and the National Collection of American Art.

There are a lot of DMV area artists, mostly those who were schooled around here, who received the spark of creativity from this talented artist, and I know that no art collection with any sort of focus on DMV artists, is complete without a Percy Martin in the collection.

Don't miss this show.

Heard on Univision

There are as many Americans from Latin American ancestry who despise the term "Hispanic" (my Dad is one of them) or "Latino" (he doesn't even know what that means and neither do I) as those who like that Nixonian label.

I think that Univision newscasters have begun a semantic revenge upon Non Hispanic Americans of European ancestry; lately I've noticed that they refer to this group as "Anglo-Saxons".

That ought to piss off Scots, Italians, Spaniards, French, Russians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Welsh, Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, Estonians, Finns, Laplanders, Andorrans, Belgians, Poles, Danes, and all the other folks who live from Portugal to Russia, etc. as much as being labeled under one label pisses me (and a lot of other gente) off...

You describe a Scot as an Anglo-anything; you better be ready to fight...

Heh, heh... makes my head hurt.

Airborne

Heading back home today, and almost finished with the almost 1,000 page-long A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five by the "American Tolkien" George R.R. Martin.

I told you before that I could never stomach Tolkien, but absolutely devour this guy's writing and that in my eyes Tolkien is the British G.R.R. Martin. Part of his genius is how his made-up world and characters are so human while being fantastical... and how he traps you into rooting for a character which he then kills -- because in the "real world" of savagery where they live, they would be killed.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: November 15, 2011

The College of Southern Maryland is seeking proposals for exhibition opportunities at the Tony Hungerford Memorial Art Gallery. All proposals received by November 15, 2011, will be placed into consideration for the 2012 / 2013 exhibition season. They welcome proposals for solo, group, and small curated exhibitions, and encourage submissions in all media.

More information is available, and current exhibits may be previewed, at the gallery’s website here.

To submit a proposal, please send a CD containing 20 images in a single PDF format; an identifying list with titles, sizes, and media; a CV; and artist’s statement to:

Dr. H.Christian Carr
College of Southern Maryland
PO Box 810
8730 Mitchell Rd.
La Plata, MD, 20646

Applicants wishing return of their submission may include a SASE with their materials. For further information, contact ccarr@csmd.edu.

Kennicott on 30 Americans

I've been digesting Philip Kennicott's ‘30 Americans’: A challenging study of identity, currently on exhibit at the Corcoran.

As Kennicott is not the easiest writer to read, this digesting process has taken me a few days and at least one trip to the dictionary, an odd thing, I think, for someone with three degrees and a MENSA-qualifying perfect SAT score many years ago.

My thoughts on the article start with the issue that I think that because nearly every writer in this town, including art writers, are somehow cast in the shadow of Woodward and Bernstein, almost every writer in this town approaches nearly every story in this town as a possible Watergate. I like the way that I managed to sneak "in this town" multiple times in that sentence.

Because the DMV is a "town" in the smallish sense of that word; no Gotham or Metropolis like word will be used ever to describe the DMV, where everybody and everyone knows your name... right? Cheers...

But I meander.

It was sooooo predictable to see the mouth-watering effect upon art writers such as Kennicott (and others to come), to try to find a less than ethical reason for this exhibition.

And thus we get:

And that raises the issue of the second problem with “30 Americans,” the appearance of a conflict of interest in presenting a private collection at a prominent museum, especially when a financial transaction has happened between the parties. Is this a quid pro quo between the Corcoran and the Rubells that serves to boost the value of a private collection?

Never mind that:

The Rubells have categorically denied any quid pro quo, and Kristin Guiter, spokeswoman for the Corcoran, says “the two are completely unrelated.” Discussion of the “30 Americans” show began well before any plans to sell the Randall School, she says.

But Lenny, some of you are probably saying, he also admits that

A few things militate against a cynical view of the question. First, the work on display is important and needs to be seen. Second, the Rubells probably bring more prestige to the relationship than the Corcoran, which has been damaged by financial and institutional mismanagement over the past decade. Third, museums would hardly exist without courting the favor of private collectors.

Militate? ahem...

This is such a challenge for so many people around here: to write an art review about the art or artists, without a need for militation (ahem, ahem) of any sort. And if one militates (ahem, ahem, ahem) against this particular writer's cynicism, what else is there?

Envy, elitism, rancor?

See where this led? Now I need to militate my own nastiness, which is the result of a visceral reaction that screams: Not everything has a hidden, unethical root! (Note to PK: Observe how I avoided the temptation to use "Raison d'être" - in other words, I militated the temptation to sound like a cultural egghead.

Not every story is a potential Watergate.

Read PK's article here.

Airborne

Heading to the Left Coast today, and armed with the almost 1,000 page-long A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five by the "American Tolkien" George R.R. Martin.

Funny thing is that I could never stomach Tolkien, but absolutely devour this guy's writing. In my eyes Tolkien is the British G.R.R. Martin.

At the Arlington Arts Center

First and foremost, a warm welcome to Stefanie Fedor, the new Executive Director of the Arlington Arts Center. Ms. Fedor comes from the Katzen, where she was an Asst. Curator, and now takes the helm of one of the leading non profit art venues around the DMV.

And AAC's annual call for entries gave 14 emerging artists the opportunity to have solo exhibitions at the Center. This year's crop was selected by DC collector and curator Michael Pollack and independent international curator Melissa Keys, formerly of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. All of the artists will be on hand at the opening reception, which is Thursday, October 6, 2011, 6-9 pm. The artists are:

Chloe Watson: Chairmen's Gallery
Stephanie Elaine Robbins: Experimental Gallery
Arden Bendler Browning: Meyer Gallery A
Jason Irla: Truland Gallery
David D'Orio: Meyer Gallery B
Matt Dunn: Tiffany Gallery

I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the work of the three artists in this group whom are new to me, as well as the always fascinating photography of Matt Dunn (whose "bearded dude riding the chicken" photo at (e)merge was - in my opinion - the defining image for that terrific art fair).

Rough day

As some of you know, I had a small accident recently, but which aggregated to larger proportions this morning, as I headed towards McLean for their ArtFest. It seems the impact points caused an inner portion of the body metal to rub against the passenger side tires with the expected result of flat tires, which essentially wrecked my day (pun intended).

Van is in the body shop for the next two weeks.

Tomorrow: MPAartfest!

This Sunday is MPAarfest in McLean - I did it last year and it was amazing, so I'm back this Sunday.

Thus, on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 MPAartfest will transform McLean Central Park into a lively landscape of mini art galleries showcasing and offering for sale the work of a diverse group of 46 juried artists, including The Lenster.

MPAartfest includes activities to captivate art-lovers of all ages. Stroll through the Children's ArtWalk, sponsored by McLean Community Foundation and coordinated by New Dominion Women's Club, to experience the work of young artists from McLean area schools. Budding artists may create their own works of art at Innovation Station sponsored by TTR/Sotheby's International Realty.

Live model drawing, courtesy of MPA's Open Studio, will give all ages a chance to draw and an "en plein air" demonstration will help round out the festival.

The Gazebo Stage will feature a variety of live performances throughout the day. Click here for the schedule

And their food vendors will offer a wonderful selection of food and beverages for your discerning palate.

See ya there!

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Wednesday, November 1, 2011 at 5 PM

The Alexandria Office of the Arts and Alexandria Commission for the Arts invite artists to submit proposals for two and three dimensional, original exhibits to be shown in one of fifteen gallery spaces during 2012-2014. Individual artists or consortia of artists, who work, study or live in the City of Alexandria are eligible. There is no entry fee to apply but a 10 percent commission will apply to all artwork sold. Each of the exhibitions will run for six months.

To be considered, each proposal must consist of:

- Completed application form
- A resume
- PC-compatible CD or a DVD with a maximum of 12 number images representing the work, each labeled with artist’s name and the title of the work
- An artist’s statement of no more than one page containing a description of the artist(s), consortium, or organizations involved in the exhibition.

Proposals (solo exhibition, consortium, or organization) must be received by Wednesday, November 1, 2011 at 5 PM by the Durant Arts Center at 1605 Cameron Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, with attention to: Call for Entries 2012-2014.

Artists selected are required to sign a Loan Agreement and will be responsible for the shipping/delivery, pick-up, preparation, and installation of works to be exhibited.

More information is available at this website or contact the Office of the Arts at (703) 746-5588 or by e-mail at aca@alexandriava.gov. In the subject line, please mention “Call for Entries 2012-2014.”

This weekend: MPAartfest!

This Sunday is MPAarfest in McLean - I did it last year and it was amazing, so I'm back this Sunday.

Thus, on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 MPAartfest will transform McLean Central Park into a lively landscape of mini art galleries showcasing and offering for sale the work of a diverse group of 46 juried artists, including The Lenster.

MPAartfest includes activities to captivate art-lovers of all ages. Stroll through the Children's ArtWalk, sponsored by McLean Community Foundation and coordinated by New Dominion Women's Club, to experience the work of young artists from McLean area schools. Budding artists may create their own works of art at Innovation Station sponsored by TTR/Sotheby's International Realty.

Live model drawing, courtesy of MPA's Open Studio, will give all ages a chance to draw and an "en plein air" demonstration will help round out the festival.

The Gazebo Stage will feature a variety of live performances throughout the day. Click here for the schedule

And their food vendors will offer a wonderful selection of food and beverages for your discerning palate.

See ya there!

Tolman creatures

I am hearing all kinds of great things about Ben Tolman's show "a few more drawings..."? at The Fridge.

Wonder how he does it? Come on Sunday, October 2nd from 2-4 and learn how to design a creature with him. All ages and skill levels welcomed. Supplies are included for a suggested $20 donation

Details here.

Tonight: Contrasts at Arlington Artisphere

Artisphere presents an exhibition of large format black and white photographs by Arlington, VA based photographer Andrew Zimmermann.

The artist uses an 8 x 10 camera and traditional darkroom processes to reveal the changing forms of light, perception, and landscape. This series of images, made half in winter and half in summer in Colorado’s Front Range, presents a particular geographic place as a set of dynamic contrasts. The series shows the natural world is constantly in flux, rather than fixed and unchanging.

Andrew Zimmermann lives and works in Arlington, Virginia. His work has been influenced not only by photographers, but also by old masters such as Titian and Cezanne, and 17th century Chinese ink painters Dong Qichang and Bada Shanren.

Artisphere is located at 1101 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia. The general hours are 11AM – 11PM Monday – Friday, 11AM – 2AM Saturday, and 11AM – 9PM Sunday. The opening reception and artist talk are free and open to all.

Opening Reception: Thursday September 29, 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Artist Talk at 5:30

Me in the Med


That's me and my second-born (Elise) floating in the Mediterranean around 1992... Check out that tan line! And below is a pic of her now as an actress and model...

Elise Lenna Campello

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Friday, October 28, 2011

The gorgeous BlackRock Center For the Arts is accepting entries for their October 2012 - August 2013 exhibit season.

You can download the prospectus here.

Eligibility: Open to all artists 18 years and over residing in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC.

Special Consideration: Artists who are willing to conduct a lecture or workshop for a BlackRock standard fee will receive special consideration during the selection process.

About the Gallery: BlackRock Center for the Arts gallery is 1500 square feet of exquisite gallery space located in Germantown, Maryland. With its high neutral walls and beautiful windows strategically placed it allows in just the right amount of natural light. The windows are located above the walls which makes it an ideal space for fiber art. BlackRock Center for the Arts takes pride in the eclectic group of artists we have exhibited in the gallery since 2002.

Jurors: Jack Rasmussen: Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC.

Jodi Walsh: mixed medium artist, curator, national speaker, owner and Gallery Director of Gallery 555 in Washington, DC.

Carol Brown Goldberg: professional fine artist and lecturer, Carol has been exhibiting her work locally and internationally over the past 36 years.

Artomatic baby!

Now that the Big Bang of (e)merge and 30 Americans has taken the DMV by storm and following in the footsteps of the DMV's amazing Artomatic's footsteps, Artomatic @ Frederick opens its doors on September 28 and runs through November 6.

Artists are occupying 27,000 sq ft in the former Frederick County Public School Central Office Building at 115 E. Church St. in historic downtown Frederick. This mega, mega, mega arts event includes 300+ visual artists and 100+ performing artists.

Did you get that performance art lovers?....... 100+ performing artists!

A ribbon cutting ceremony and "Meet the Artists" night is being held on Saturday, October 1, starting at 5 PM. More information: www.artomaticfrederick.org!

Five gets you ten that the WaPo ignores this...

Artinfo on (e)merge

So, will (e)merge return? The nation's capital, according to the fair organizers, has youth, vitality, a "tremendous interest in culture," and, perhaps most importantly of all, wealth (the suburbs of Washington include many of the wealthiest communities in the nation). All that is left is convincing the D.C. upper crust that they should be spending their money on art.

That, it seems, might prove to be harder to do than to say. As Mayer Fine Art's Lenny Campello said during a Friday lull, "A curator here would rather take a cab to Dulles to see an emerging artist in Berlin than take a cab to Georgetown to see an emerging artist at a local gallery." Still, (e)merge was a step in the right direction.

Read the whole article here.

Anne Marchand at King Street Gallery





Anne Marchand will give a short talk about her work in the show, "Of Shining Worlds: Recent Paintings by Anne Marchand" curated by Claudia Rousseau. Artist Tom Block, a scholar of medieval literature, will do a reading of poems by Rumi, the great early thirteenth century Persian mystical poet. Maurice Sedacca, a musician and composer from New York, will play a prelude and accompanying music on the the guitar and the oud, a middle eastern instrument that is the forerunner of the lute.

Location: The King Street Gallery is located on the ground floor of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center on the west side of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus off Georgia Avenue at 930 King Street. Parking is available in the West Garage, which is located immediately behind the Arts Center.

RSVP Facebook Event Page here

The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center
The King Street Gallery
930 King Street
Silver Spring, MD 20910
240-567-5821

DC in American Contemporary Art magazine

Read it online here.

until every shape has found its city

Reston, VA: GRACE (Greater Reston Arts Center) is pleased to present until every shape has found its city with Evan Reed from September 29 through November 12, 2011. The exhibition explores the intersection of art, literature, and architecture through complex sculptures and drawings that transcend literal interpretations.

Using commonplace materials – lumber, plaster, wall board, and nails – Evan Reed creates fantastical sculptures that reference reality but travel beyond into the realm of imagination. His “impossible buildings” with skewed framing, walled-off rooms, and disappearing passages invite the viewer to slip through reality and enter an alternative space where architectural forms become departure points for dreams.

Reed’s diverse influences range from poetry and literature to sacred geometry and visionary architecture. His title, until every shape has found its city, is borrowed from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, a novel featuring imaginary conversations between Marco Polo and The Kublai Khan. In the book, the explorer describes his travels to the emperor through a series of evocative stories. In a similar manner, Reed invites his audience to discover his works through multiple viewpoints. By building sculpture as Calvino organized his novel through complex interlocking sections, Reed draws the viewer deeper into the mystical meanings of his work.

until every shape has found its city (all in lower case) features six large-scale sculptures and twelve drawings which incorporate diverse, multi-cultural sources. Visitors entering the gallery are met by the soaring, thirteen foot “Burj al-Shawq” (Tower of Desire) growing and evolving from its solid, spiral base into a tower of cluttered construction cranes. Drawing on a trip to Dubai during its building boom, Reed explores the conflicts between the old and the new Middle East in architecture, culture, and political upheaval.

Towards the rear of the gallery “October Hive” hangs in space just as its name implies – like a beehive suspended from a tree. In an unplanned coincidence, the sculpture’s eight interconnected chambers precisely mirror the hexagonal architecture of the GRACE gallery space. Although “October Hive’s” eight peaks resemble dormers on a traditional Cape Cod home, Reed is also referencing the round Hakka houses in

Fujian, China and eighteenth century Panopticon architecture designed so that prison guards could secretly observe inmates from a central tower.

Filling the gallery’s main front window “A Corner for Gaston and Gonzalo” extends over a built-in bench and five feet into the gallery. The sculpture’s simple, overall form is based on Reston’s nineteenth century Bowman distillery building while its center niche (the corner referred to in the title) references Reston’s more recent architecture – in particular the built-in planting boxes on Heron House balconies and the decorative sculpture and niches designed by Gonzalo Fonseca in Lake Anne. Reed made several exploratory trips around Reston gathering ideas for this site-specific work including visits to the Reston Museum and a meeting with Reston’s founder, Robert E. Simon, who discussed his intentions for the community.

The niche in “A Corner for Gaston and Gonzalo” also holds a surprise – an etched glass panel which reveals a street scene projected by a hidden camera obscura. Here Reed has brought the outside cityscape into his sculpture and given form to his title while alluding to the community’s history and hopes.

“Using architectural forms has given me a way to create a dialogue between many distinct impulses. The viewer can move through time and location. Memories of familiar forms yield to frameworks that describe a potential future or reveal a desertion of plans.” Reed’s beautifully crafted, intricate sculptures and drawings offer a rare opportunity for dialogue about our complex relationship to structures

A twenty-four page catalog accompanies the exhibition and includes an essay by Vesela Sretenovic, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.

What's the next big art event in town?

"30 Americans showcases works by many of the most important African American artists of the last three decades. This provocative exhibition focuses on issues of racial, sexual, and historical identity in contemporary culture while exploring the powerful influence of artistic legacy and community across generations."

Check it out online here.