The fourth edition of the (e)merge art fair just concluded on Sunday, and I feel pretty sure that I can take a decent shot at guessing that the fifth iteration will come next year.
I remember how surprised the DMV art scribes were in announcing (e)merge's return for a second iteration in 2012. After all, the international art fair model, so successful in most of the planet's capitals had been tried before here, most recently by ArtDC, and had been an abject failure.
The DMV "art press" was really surprised!
I remember how surprised the DMV art scribes were in announcing (e)merge's return for a second iteration in 2012. After all, the international art fair model, so successful in most of the planet's capitals had been tried before here, most recently by ArtDC, and had been an abject failure.
The DMV "art press" was really surprised!
"People in DC just don't buy art," will tell you failed gallerists and failed art dealers (and most DMV artists).
In any endeavor, the reasons for failures usually appear to trump the reasons for success (and thus why many slackers love socialism as long as somebody else is willing to work hard), and thus the scribes' 2012 surprise that (e)merge was returning was but a true representation of shock from the scant DC area art press; they all but expected for (e)merge to fail.
In any endeavor, the reasons for failures usually appear to trump the reasons for success (and thus why many slackers love socialism as long as somebody else is willing to work hard), and thus the scribes' 2012 surprise that (e)merge was returning was but a true representation of shock from the scant DC area art press; they all but expected for (e)merge to fail.
When it came back in 2013, and again this year, the surprise was somewhat lessened, and the hardworking bloggers added impetus to the drive. The mainstream media's "lessened surprised" will hopefully never be replaced by the DMV mainstream media's usual attitude towards the capital region's visual arts: apathy.
In fact the WaPo is a 2014 sponsor - Yay!
In fact the WaPo is a 2014 sponsor - Yay!
Back on track: It is clear that (e)merge's continuity is mostly the result of Connersmith's dynamic duo partners' hard work and faith on the DMV visual arts future. Jamie Smith and Leigh Conner are savvy, experienced and connected art world personalities, and they are not afraid of hard work, extraordinary leaps of faith on the promise of the future, as well as the occasional ass kick... to make things happen.
But I think that the most positive result to that unexpected continuity for DC's only art fair model (and as I think the near future will show) is that (e)merge is now providing a bridge to what can best be described as a kindling new revival to the DMV visual art scene.
Think warmth.
The "outside the DMV" art cabal is sensing something here in the area... I know this because there's no one on this planet that knows more about the DMV visual art scene than I do.
That was not irony, that is fact, and my evidence is that I am constantly getting emailed, queried, called, probed and asked for data, info, opinion and input about a diverse and mind-blowing set of issues all centered on the focus of DMV visual arts... this has happened for years, after all, I am an eloquent, erudite, outgoing, high IQ, likable, sexy, good-looking, hard working person who doesn't think of any of this stuff as "work."
Newspaper editors, everybody else's art critics, radio, art fair organizers, artists, gallerists, blah, blah, blah... they are all always reaching out to me for the most precious thing on the universe: Information.
And there's a theory (actually a law) of thermodynamics that is also adapted to other fields and now often used to predict (of all things) a virus or cyberspace attack (before it happens) based on the second law of thermodynamics as exemplified by the flow of hot water through a pipe... cough, cough.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you probably are really, really good at what you do, but stand zip chance of being invited to join Mensa.
And that law of thermodynamics, which when first discussed over a decade ago in application to cyberspace traffic was laughed at, can now routinely be applied to nearly everything dealing with information.
The DMV visual art scene's water is warming up folks... and (e)merge's continuity is a big part of it... is it the gas heater heating the pipe? or the warming water running though it? Not sure, and there's very little tangible evidence to prove what I am submitting here, but listen to the Lenster when he tells you that there are a lot of excited Rydberg atoms in the DMV visual arts waters, as the temperature of a group of particles (of which (e)merge is a key one) is always a great indication of the level of excitation of a system.
There are (of course) notable exceptions to this rule, such as systems that exhibit negative temperature -- like the DMV mainstream press, which (ever since Gene Robinson killed the visual arts coverage of the Washington Post's Style Section a few years ago when he was sadly made the Style Section editor for a disastrous few years), continues to fail to inform its diminishing readership about the plastic arts.
When it all happens, whatever it is about to happen with the DMV visual arts scene in the near future, they will be surprised and shocked once again...
Go (e)merge! See ya next year! And... Thank You!
Think warmth.
The "outside the DMV" art cabal is sensing something here in the area... I know this because there's no one on this planet that knows more about the DMV visual art scene than I do.
That was not irony, that is fact, and my evidence is that I am constantly getting emailed, queried, called, probed and asked for data, info, opinion and input about a diverse and mind-blowing set of issues all centered on the focus of DMV visual arts... this has happened for years, after all, I am an eloquent, erudite, outgoing, high IQ, likable, sexy, good-looking, hard working person who doesn't think of any of this stuff as "work."
Newspaper editors, everybody else's art critics, radio, art fair organizers, artists, gallerists, blah, blah, blah... they are all always reaching out to me for the most precious thing on the universe: Information.
And there's a theory (actually a law) of thermodynamics that is also adapted to other fields and now often used to predict (of all things) a virus or cyberspace attack (before it happens) based on the second law of thermodynamics as exemplified by the flow of hot water through a pipe... cough, cough.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you probably are really, really good at what you do, but stand zip chance of being invited to join Mensa.
And that law of thermodynamics, which when first discussed over a decade ago in application to cyberspace traffic was laughed at, can now routinely be applied to nearly everything dealing with information.
The DMV visual art scene's water is warming up folks... and (e)merge's continuity is a big part of it... is it the gas heater heating the pipe? or the warming water running though it? Not sure, and there's very little tangible evidence to prove what I am submitting here, but listen to the Lenster when he tells you that there are a lot of excited Rydberg atoms in the DMV visual arts waters, as the temperature of a group of particles (of which (e)merge is a key one) is always a great indication of the level of excitation of a system.
There are (of course) notable exceptions to this rule, such as systems that exhibit negative temperature -- like the DMV mainstream press, which (ever since Gene Robinson killed the visual arts coverage of the Washington Post's Style Section a few years ago when he was sadly made the Style Section editor for a disastrous few years), continues to fail to inform its diminishing readership about the plastic arts.
When it all happens, whatever it is about to happen with the DMV visual arts scene in the near future, they will be surprised and shocked once again...
Go (e)merge! See ya next year! And... Thank You!
.jpg "Superman - Oil and alkyds on Wood by Simon Monk")
