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Sunday, December 16, 2012
Opportunity for Artists
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Zero Dark Thirty
As I've noted before, I am not really sure why I continue to get passes to many press previews of movies, but every once in a while, I do have the time and interest to go see one ahead of time and I saw Zero Dark Thirty and came away entertained, but as usual disappointed as to how Hollywood distorts historical events in order to make a film... ahhh... entertaining.
My basic issue with Zero Dark Thirty, and almost every single Hollywood movie allegedly representing a historical event, is that I am a pedantic Virgo, who tends to over notice little "wrong" things about celluloid history... little things such as a military ribbon out of place, an uncovered salute from a sailor, a wrong line.
To start, the very start of the movie is made up and never happened. But even before the start of the movie I have an issue.
"How can you have an issue before the movie starts, Lenster? ", you ask.
The title is wrong.
No one in the military says "Zero Dark Thirty." The statement used to depict a very early hour in the day is "O Dark Thirty" -- "O" as in the letter; not "Zero" -- and I understand that this may confuse some folks who never served, but if I'm going to be pedantic, then I might as well start with an erroneous title.
Back to the start of the movie.
There were only threepeople terrorists who were water boarded by the CIA in their effort to gather intelligence from the bad guys (and thousands of US military people as part of the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) school - at least when I was in, being water boarded was part of the school curriculum); the dude being water boarded in the movie was not one of them, so why make that up?
That's two strikes already, and we're not even finished the first few minutes of the film, but Hollywood has already seeded suspicion about nearly everything that follows and that bugs the pedantic me.
The vast left wing nut house is going bananas over this film because it thinks that it is too flattering to the CIA, to the US Government, to whatever... they also rightly complain about perceived historical inaccuracies (although I didn't recall any such complaints on equally intellectually dishonest efforts such as Oliver Stone's "W" or Michael Moore's pick any documentary).
As a work of historical fiction, the film was splendid in its entertainment factor... and Hollywood will tell you that it is a "film and not a documentary." The problem is that a lot more people will see this film, and take it for a full, true story, than will ever read the actual facts about the OBL hunt.
My basic issue with Zero Dark Thirty, and almost every single Hollywood movie allegedly representing a historical event, is that I am a pedantic Virgo, who tends to over notice little "wrong" things about celluloid history... little things such as a military ribbon out of place, an uncovered salute from a sailor, a wrong line.
To start, the very start of the movie is made up and never happened. But even before the start of the movie I have an issue.
"How can you have an issue before the movie starts, Lenster? ", you ask.
The title is wrong.
No one in the military says "Zero Dark Thirty." The statement used to depict a very early hour in the day is "O Dark Thirty" -- "O" as in the letter; not "Zero" -- and I understand that this may confuse some folks who never served, but if I'm going to be pedantic, then I might as well start with an erroneous title.
Back to the start of the movie.
There were only three
That's two strikes already, and we're not even finished the first few minutes of the film, but Hollywood has already seeded suspicion about nearly everything that follows and that bugs the pedantic me.
The vast left wing nut house is going bananas over this film because it thinks that it is too flattering to the CIA, to the US Government, to whatever... they also rightly complain about perceived historical inaccuracies (although I didn't recall any such complaints on equally intellectually dishonest efforts such as Oliver Stone's "W" or Michael Moore's pick any documentary).
As a work of historical fiction, the film was splendid in its entertainment factor... and Hollywood will tell you that it is a "film and not a documentary." The problem is that a lot more people will see this film, and take it for a full, true story, than will ever read the actual facts about the OBL hunt.
Art Purchase Awards
Heading out to hand out some art purchase
awards from the Prince George's County Arts and Cultural Heritage
Division... congrats to Robert W Kincheloe, Ric Garcia and Celestine Ranney-Howes!
Friday, December 14, 2012
Carol Goldberg reception tomorrow
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NT9, 2011, acrylic on canvas, with pulverized glass, 84 x 72 inches
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CAROL BROWN GOLDBERG
paintings & sculptures
December 7, 2012 - January 11, 2013
OPENING RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 5-7PM
OPENING RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 5-7PM
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
When governments fund art...
Government support of the arts allows art to become definable by the state. That is, if the government is going to give tax breaks, grants, or funding to organizations or businesses that sell art, they have to define what art is.Read the whole piece by Lauren Galik by clicking here.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Art2Art Auction
TO PURCHASE TICKETS & MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE.
Online bidding of featured artwork in the show ends at 10 p.m. on December 20, 2012. Click here to visit the website.
All proceeds from artwork sales will support the DC Collaborative’s flagship program, Arts for Every Student, which provides arts experiences for 30,000 DC public school and public charter school students each year to attend Washington’s world-class art and cultural institutions.
What to do this Saturday?
The Washington Glass School is having their Holiday Open House on Saturday, December 15th, 2012. The opening is around Noon, through 5:00pm on Saturday.
As I've noted many times before, this is one of my favorite places to do some Christmas shopping for special people! What better present than original art?
The artists and instructors of the glass school will be exhibiting artworks.
The WGS invites the community to visit and experience a unique DC area arts venue. And there's more: the adjacent studios - Red Dirt and Flux Studios will also be open - a great chance to see whats going on in the very vibrant Gateway Arts District!
See ya there!
Holiday Open House and Sale
Saturday, December 15, 2012, from Noon til 5 pm.
Washington Glass School
3700 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
As I've noted many times before, this is one of my favorite places to do some Christmas shopping for special people! What better present than original art?
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| Works by DMV uberstar artist Tim Tate will be available. |
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| Beautiful works by Syl Mathis will be on exhibit and for sale! |
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| Get yourself a Sean Hennessey - his work is hot, hot, hot! |
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| Metal artist Chris Shea will be there with his stunning forged iron work |
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| Check out Nancy Donnelly's colorful artwork. |
See ya there!
Saturday, December 15, 2012, from Noon til 5 pm.
Washington Glass School
3700 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MD 20712
Monday, December 10, 2012
The wake effect begins
I've described the art fair "wake effect" (wake in the sense of the wake that a ship leaves behind when it moves through the water) as a significant reason to attend and be present at art fairs: all the good stuff that happens "after" the fair is over and because of the fair.
First wake effect: Vogue magazine editors saw Cirenaica Moreira's work at Aqua and now we've been notified that they will be doing a feature article on her and her work in the near future!
First wake effect: Vogue magazine editors saw Cirenaica Moreira's work at Aqua and now we've been notified that they will be doing a feature article on her and her work in the near future!
Sunday, December 09, 2012
Aqua: The Last Day
Sunday, being the last day of the fair, is usually a dreadful day - especially bad if you've had a bad fair and now have to face the brutal realities of packing out, the harsh dance of loading artwork on double parked vans, trucks and cars along one of the world's worst traffic streets...But this art fair has been a great one, and that always makes things - even packing and loading - a little better to swallow. I am also lucky to have had the help of several DMV artists (and their spouses) plus my hard working intern, to make this Sunday pack-out the best one ever.
My cool intern even managed to dance the gallery van into a primo loading spot, once we were ready to haul back and load the van for the drive back to the DMV.
Between my last report on mid Saturday and tonight, sales continued to be brisk, as we sold two nice Jeannette L. Herrera paintings, two of British artist Simon Monk paintings, one more of my video drawings and several other "regular" drawings as well as three paintings by the ubertalented DMV artist Judith Peck.
We also sold a cool Andrew Wodzianski painting as the DMV's leading performancer/interdisciplinary artist returns to painting.And a last minute sale of a glass piece by the DMV's first green artist, Erwin Timmers, to a Canadian gallery owner, finished what is easily the best (as far as fun and sales) art fair that I have ever done.
Thank you to all the DMV area artists and collectors and dealers who dropped by to say hello during these hectic and fun days.
The gallery intern is driving the van back, we're home safe and now time to think about the New York fairs early next year!
Saturday, December 08, 2012
Aqua Day Three
Last night the major score was achieved by DMV artist Cory Oberndorfer, who managed to sell about 19 of his "Donut" series paintings
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| Corey Oberndorfer paintings of donuts |
Yep! That many... I also sold my "T-Subucula Deus" video piece to an art critic from Canada plus about eight more regular drawings through the night.
Friday, December 07, 2012
Aqua Day Two
Good day at Aqua Art Fair yesterday and decent crowds all day long... also a steady stream of DMV artists stopping by to say hello.
Super talented and hard working gallery intern Audrey Wilson (one of the bennies of being our gallery intern is that you get to bring artwork to the fairs) sold her biggest glass piece - Yay! It went to a New York art collector.
Also sold a Dulce Pinzon photo - the very last proof piece of her fabulous iconic image from her Superheros series, my largest video piece (remember "Artist Worshiping at the Altar of Modern Art"?), a Cory Oberndorfer donut painting and several of my regular drawings.
It's interesting to me that three of my personal sales have gone to other gallery owners; more on that later.
As I've discussed before, there are other perks of doing an art fair - what I call the "wake effect" -- on opening night I connected a major university's museum director with the owner of the vintage Korda photographs of the psychopath Che Guevara - they will be exhibited at the museum in the near future and also become part of a new history course on the Argentinean adventurer.
Also met a NYC art center director who connected me with an unlikely art collector couple (unlikely in the sense that they are known to collect Asian art), who are refocusing their attention on collecting Cuban art and plan to open a museum space in the Big Apple focused on Cuban art; more on that later.
A well-known art collector who owns my work (and who is on the "Top 100 Art Collectors in the World" list, and who bought another one of my pieces on VIP night) also connected me with a young guy who is building a new boutique hotel in the Miami area. Apparently the art collector is the money behind the scheme, as the hotel development young guy was directed to work with me to ensure that the project had real artwork instead of "hotel art"; we traded business cards and chatted about "hotelism" and "real art for hotels."
Opportunity for Artists
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Thursday, December 06, 2012
Aqua Day One
And the VIP opening at the Aqua Art Fair Miami Beach was last night, and amidst much booze, tropical heat and impossibly slim/tall women in 8 inch heels and tanned muscly guys, some art sales managed to take place.
The opening ended at 11PM, and I left at 11:30 and then it took me over an hour to navigate the first dozen city blocks of Collins Avenue, such was the humanity and carmanity crowding the streets and sidewalks of this unique place.
A well-known collector who has written 39 bestsellers ended up buying my "Desi, Lucy and Fidel" video piece as well as two gorgeous photos by Cuban photographer Cirenaica Moreira. I also sold four other drawings, including two to art gallery owners from Art Miami, many of whom were present last night reporting good sales at Art Miami and Context.
The opening ended at 11PM, and I left at 11:30 and then it took me over an hour to navigate the first dozen city blocks of Collins Avenue, such was the humanity and carmanity crowding the streets and sidewalks of this unique place.
A well-known collector who has written 39 bestsellers ended up buying my "Desi, Lucy and Fidel" video piece as well as two gorgeous photos by Cuban photographer Cirenaica Moreira. I also sold four other drawings, including two to art gallery owners from Art Miami, many of whom were present last night reporting good sales at Art Miami and Context.
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Breaking news!
From the Aqua front office:
As one of our 2012 exhibitors, we wanted you to be one of the first to know that Aqua is joining the Art Miami LLC umbrella of fairs. The company, which produces not only Art Miami, but Art Hamptons, Art Wynwood and CONTEXT, will take over operations of Aqua after the current, 8th installment, of our fair.
We are thrilled about the future of Aqua and the tremendous opportunity for all of our exhibitors and artists, who will have a much greater exposure, as well as access to a larger art collector base, by being associated with a major international art fair. We're also expecting this announcement to generate quite a bit of buzz about our current show -- below is a copy of the press release, which is going out to all of our media contacts today. In addition, watch out for an exclusive feature about this exciting new development in today's edition of the Miami Herald.
Art Miami LLC to Acquire Vibrant Aqua Art Miami in Miami Beach
Company Now Produces Five of America's Premiere Art Fairs
MIAMI, FL - (Dec 4, 2012) - Art Miami LLC, parent company of Florida's longest running premier contemporary and modern art fair Art Miami, announced today that it will add another gem to its crown, the vibrant Aqua Art Miami in Miami Beach, now in its 8th year. Art Miami LLC will take over the operation of the fair at the conclusion of this year's 2012 edition.
"We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to take Aqua Art Miami to the next level. We look forward to carrying on the great atmosphere and tradition that founders Jaq Chartier and Dirk Park have created for emerging and cutting edge galleries and their artists and collectors over the last eight years. In addition, having a location close to the beach during Miami Art Week will help develop a larger scope of services and programming for all of our participating exhibitors and attendees associated with Art Miami, CONTEXT, and now Aqua Art Miami," said Nick Korniloff, Art Miami, LLC, Fair Director and Partner.
"Dirk and I are thrilled to add our fair to the Art Miami umbrella -- it's great for the future of Aqua," said Jaq Chartier, Aqua's Co-Director. "Exhibitors and their artists will have much greater exposure, as well as access to a larger art collector base, by being associated with a major international art fair."
Over the years, Aqua Art Miami has been recognized for presenting vibrant and noteworthy international art programs with a particular interest in supporting young dealers and galleries with strong emerging and early-mid career artists. This curatorial commitment is complemented by the unique art fair setting of the Aqua Hotel, a classic South Beach establishment with spacious exhibition rooms that open onto a breezy, intimate courtyard. The surroundings have become a favorite gathering spot not only for relaxation during Miami Art Week, but also as a place to exchange and disseminate new contemporary art ideas. And with its close proximity to the main Art Basel fair, Aqua Art Miami has consistently been ranked among the top satellite art events by collectors, artists, curators, critics and the art loving public alike.
This year, Aqua Art Miami's eighth installment will present innovative special programming, which features performance art and installation, plus the collective exchange of ideas by 47 exhibiting galleries from North and South America, as well as Japan. The fair is located at 1530 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, across from the Loews Hotel.
For additional information on both fairs, please visit: www.aquaartmiami.com or www.art-miami.com.
Almost there...
Up and early this morning as with three and a half galleries to fill, it has been exhausting to hang all the artwork at the Aqua Art Fair. Of course, the small half-gallery was the hardest one, as the walls seemed to be made of some new impenetrable material that required a small nuclear device to make a hole in the walls.
The VIP opening is tonight, starting at 7PM, which is when the music starts, the free booze begins to flow (and hopefully some of the artwork) and immensely tall women in 8-inch heels suddenly are everywhere.
Pics and updates later.
The VIP opening is tonight, starting at 7PM, which is when the music starts, the free booze begins to flow (and hopefully some of the artwork) and immensely tall women in 8-inch heels suddenly are everywhere.
Pics and updates later.
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Miami Art Fairs: VIP Openings Start!
Tonight is the VIP opening of Art Miami, which a lot of people consider to be second in the art fair food chain after the "real" Art Basel fair.
Art Miami is such a draw for key blue chip galleries, that its well-earned number two spot (ahead of Pulse at number three and Scope at barely holding onto number four) has allowed its owners to start yet another, separate fair (Context) to which a lot of the Pulse and worthy Scope galleries have flocked to.
Both Art Miami and Context have their VIP openings tonight... CONNERSMITH and the tiny Curator's Office are the only two DMV area galleries in this blue chip group - a well earned distinction to the hard work of its owners.
So it looks like Scope is about to be shoved down to number five on the food chain, and I wouldn't be surprised if Context gathers more attention (and sales) than Pulse and becomes number three for its Art Miami owners.
VIP tickets are non-transferable, so I did not, I repeat, I did not give my VIP pass to a DMV area artist who may or may not walking around Art Miami and Context tonight pretending to be "F. Lennox Campello"... cough, cough.
I'm exhausted from hanging work for my own presence at the Aqua Art Fair (voted by a HUGE margin as the best art fair for "emerging artists"), so there's no chance that my tired feet will be hanging around the VIP openings tonight, but many DMV area artists will be schmoozing, scarfing up the free food and booze and handing out business cards at the event, such as Tim Tate (who's exhibiting at Art Miami with Ireland's primo gallery Blue Leaf), Judith Peck, Audrey Wilson, my Norfolk dealer Sheila Giolitti and many others.
Talking about hanging artwork, first horror story of the fair: British artist Simon Monk, who is part of my curated "Superheroes and Super Villains" exhibit at Aqua shipped his work from the UK delivery with Monday delivery guaranteed.
When it didn't show up on Monday, I contacted him and a very worried Monk then spent hours and hours on the phone in the UK trying to find out where his shipment was.
Many hours later, he informs me that his
I told Monk that whenever his work shows up it will be hung!
Art Miami is such a draw for key blue chip galleries, that its well-earned number two spot (ahead of Pulse at number three and Scope at barely holding onto number four) has allowed its owners to start yet another, separate fair (Context) to which a lot of the Pulse and worthy Scope galleries have flocked to.
Both Art Miami and Context have their VIP openings tonight... CONNERSMITH and the tiny Curator's Office are the only two DMV area galleries in this blue chip group - a well earned distinction to the hard work of its owners.
So it looks like Scope is about to be shoved down to number five on the food chain, and I wouldn't be surprised if Context gathers more attention (and sales) than Pulse and becomes number three for its Art Miami owners.
VIP tickets are non-transferable, so I did not, I repeat, I did not give my VIP pass to a DMV area artist who may or may not walking around Art Miami and Context tonight pretending to be "F. Lennox Campello"... cough, cough.
I'm exhausted from hanging work for my own presence at the Aqua Art Fair (voted by a HUGE margin as the best art fair for "emerging artists"), so there's no chance that my tired feet will be hanging around the VIP openings tonight, but many DMV area artists will be schmoozing, scarfing up the free food and booze and handing out business cards at the event, such as Tim Tate (who's exhibiting at Art Miami with Ireland's primo gallery Blue Leaf), Judith Peck, Audrey Wilson, my Norfolk dealer Sheila Giolitti and many others.
Talking about hanging artwork, first horror story of the fair: British artist Simon Monk, who is part of my curated "Superheroes and Super Villains" exhibit at Aqua shipped his work from the UK delivery with Monday delivery guaranteed.
When it didn't show up on Monday, I contacted him and a very worried Monk then spent hours and hours on the phone in the UK trying to find out where his shipment was.
Many hours later, he informs me that his
"... wife has literally been on the phone all day trying to get to the bottom of what has happened to my crate. After battling through obstruction after obstruction she discovered that the crate had never left the UK! Apparently Fedex thought there was a problem with the paperwork but it turned out they had simple not looked at it properly and admitted that it was all in order. What I find most frustrating is that they claimed to be 'waiting for information' but had made no attempt to contact me - I genuinely believe that if my wife had not pursued this the crate could have simply sat at Stansted Airport indefinitely - so much for 'next day delivery'. "Yeah FEDEX... what's up with that?
I told Monk that whenever his work shows up it will be hung!
Monday, December 03, 2012
Miami art fairs: Day -2
The worst part about doing an art fair (other than the brutal costs) are the unloading and packing up process.
The unloading this year was accidentally super easy.
Yesterday morning I was dropping off the gallery intern (the super hardworking and talented Audrey Wilson, whose work we will also be showing as one of the perks of being an intern at Alida Anderson Art Projects). When I say "dropping off" I mean at the Aqua Hotel in Miami Beach, where the art fair will be taking place starting Wednesday for VIPs.
The official unload time starts at 5PM, and yet, someone there was nice enough to say, "Since you are already here, you can go ahead and unload."
And in less than 20 minutes we had unloaded.
Nightmare number one avoided: a long-assed wait to unload among the heavy traffic of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach on Sunday night or Monday morning.
This morning we started hanging, and we're about 50% done.
Afterwards, I headed back to Hollywood Beach for a walk on the boardwalk, some pizza and a pitcher ofbeer ... cough... cough ice tea with the family.
While I was gone, Little Junes and his mom were exploring the best thing about Florida other than Cuban food...
The unloading this year was accidentally super easy.
Yesterday morning I was dropping off the gallery intern (the super hardworking and talented Audrey Wilson, whose work we will also be showing as one of the perks of being an intern at Alida Anderson Art Projects). When I say "dropping off" I mean at the Aqua Hotel in Miami Beach, where the art fair will be taking place starting Wednesday for VIPs.
The official unload time starts at 5PM, and yet, someone there was nice enough to say, "Since you are already here, you can go ahead and unload."
And in less than 20 minutes we had unloaded.
Nightmare number one avoided: a long-assed wait to unload among the heavy traffic of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach on Sunday night or Monday morning.
This morning we started hanging, and we're about 50% done.
Afterwards, I headed back to Hollywood Beach for a walk on the boardwalk, some pizza and a pitcher of
Aqua on top
Just checked the results of the poll on the Best Emerging Art Fair
in Miami, which New American Paintings magazine ran around the elections
earlier this month, and (as I suspected) the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach --- where we kicked ass last year and where we're returning to this year in room 116 --- is at the top, by a really wide margin, which is more than I can say about the recent Presidential elections.
See you at the fair starting next Wednesday!
Sunday, December 02, 2012
Jewish Spiderman will be at Aqua later this week!
This is "Look Out Spidermun!"
a new acrylic on board by the highly talented and intelligent DMV area artist Jeannette Lilith Herrera. This piece and several others from her work on
superheros will be part of the "Superheros and Super Villains" exhibition at Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach next week - room 116!
Saturday, December 01, 2012
Santa and then Reagan
First a visit to Santa...
Then out to Reagan National Airport for the trip down South - I'll be at the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach - room 116 - and Dr. Anderson will be doing some research with some Hialeah school children for one of her research lines.
Then out to Reagan National Airport for the trip down South - I'll be at the Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach - room 116 - and Dr. Anderson will be doing some research with some Hialeah school children for one of her research lines.
Friday, November 30, 2012
WaPo on Ficker
This is a very cool WaPo story on my good friend and uberheckler Robin Ficker... read it here.
This is the man who brought the art of heckling to an art! (and that's why he's being discussed in an art blog!)... I call his art movement Hecklerism!
Go Robin!
This is the man who brought the art of heckling to an art! (and that's why he's being discussed in an art blog!)... I call his art movement Hecklerism!
Go Robin!
Good bye Big E!
Tomorrow a powerful and storied gray lady of the sea, USS Enterprise (the real one, not the Star Trek one of the future) will retire after multiple decades of service.
Fair winds and following seas!
Fair winds and following seas!
Spiderman will be at Aqua next week
This is "BERNABE MENDEZ from the State of Guerrero works as a professional window cleaner in New York. He sends 500 dollars a month" from the amazing Dulce Pinzon's Superheros series. This piece and several others from that series will be part of the "Superheros and Super Villains" exhibition at Aqua Art Fair in Miami Beach next week - room 116!
Heading down to Miami Beach
Here's the gallery van all packed up and ready to head South to Miami Beach for the Aqua Art Fair during next week's Art Basel week in Miami.
First of all, I'm glad that someone else is driving that puppy and second, you can't even fit a pin in that van!
As usual, I'll be reporting daily from the fairs; we leave on Saturday!
First of all, I'm glad that someone else is driving that puppy and second, you can't even fit a pin in that van!
As usual, I'll be reporting daily from the fairs; we leave on Saturday!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wanda Jackson reviews "Under The Influence"
The Sentinel's Wanda Jackson pops in with a nice review of the "Under The Influence" show that I recently curated for Prince George's County. See the review here.
A nice surprise is also coming to some of the selected artists: The county is going to buy several of the works for the PG County Art Collection... names later!
A nice surprise is also coming to some of the selected artists: The county is going to buy several of the works for the PG County Art Collection... names later!
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