Benjamin Abramowitz

Benjamin Abramowitz passed away on November 21, 2011 at age 94 and left a profoundly important legacy of more than 75 years of work.

Lots of information on his life and his more than 7,000 pieces of artwork at www.benjaminabramowitz.com

Trekkies Needed for USS Enterprise Restoration Project

The National Air and Space Museum is looking for Star Trek fans to pass them pre-1976 images or film of the original studio model of USS Enterprise.


Nerds an find more details here, but essentially Trekkies are being encouraged to submit firsthand, original images, or film of the ship under construction, during filming, or on public display at any time before 1976.


For more information about submitting material, contact StarshipEnterprise@si.edu


Live Long and Prosper.

Wanna go draw?

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) hosts a drop-in “Working from the Figure” session on Fridays, February 5, 2016 and February 19, 2016 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at CHAW, 545 7^th Street, SE.

Work on drawings or paintings in front of a live model in a session without formal instruction, facilitated by artist Will Fleishell. Please bring your own drawing materials. Easels are available. The session is $15 for drop-in students. For more information, visit www.chaw.org or call (202) 547-6839.

RIP David Quammen

David Quammen passed away yesterday... Some eloquent words about this fixture of the DMV art scene by DMV art critic and artist Kevin Mellema, and at the bottom a painting of Quammen by DMV uber artist Erik Sandberg.

RIP ... We lost Dave today... Folks outside the DC arts community won't know him, but Dave was... Dave was.... well, Dave was Dave.

To say the least, Dave was a unique character. He didn't leave any gas in the tank when he left. We should all be so inspired. 

He entered our lives when he became a figure model posing around the DC area. Later on, he took over the MOCA gallery in Georgetown. 

After years spent around him, there certainty will be no shortage of Dave stories to tell. His epic battles with the MOCA landlord became city wide PR battles gone wild that spilled over into the City Paper. .... They alone were worth the price of admission. This photo, as an example, was done in the midst of one such skirmish. 

But my favorite Dave tale comes from his modeling days before all that.. He was a tenacious model that simply would not give up on a pose no matter how bad it hurt to go on holding it. ...

One night he was on the model stand with another model who had her back to him. She took a fairly simple standing pose, while Dave took a semi-reclining pose akin to the 'Dying Gaul' from the Parthenon... His entire weight held up by one arm for 20 minutes.

Somewhere towards the middle of that, it started to wear on him. Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew, but Dave wouldn't spit it out no matter what. It was a point of pride with him, and we all respected and appreciated such.

Everybody has their limits, and clearly Dave was in well over his head on this one... .. A few more minutes ticked by, and Dave's arm started to give it up for him... By the end of the twenty minutes the entire modeling stand was shaking rapidly from the considerable muscle spasms in Dave's arm.

The buzzer went off, and his torture ended. He sat up, his torso beet red, flush with blood from the exertion. Wiped out, he sat there trying to regain his breath and composure before the call for a new pose... When the other model turned around and said to him... "That wasn't so bad!"... It was a classic line. Couldn't have been more contrast between the average model, and Dave's efforts. Nobody put it all on the line the way he would.

He went on to run MOCA with the same no holds barred gusto....

Underneath the outrageous antics, and occasional irascible episodes, Dave was a genuinely kind and generous man. He prided himself on making MOCA an equal opportunity place for all comers. The art world hates that sort of thing, but Dave stuck to his guns to the bitter end. In some fundamental way, the people were more important to him than the art. He was a curator of people. Nobody could put together a wild collection of people the way Dave could....

It's common to hear people eulogized as 'unique' and 'irreplaceable'. In Dave's case, it's all true. In fact, it's simply unthinkable that we'll see the likes of him again in our lifetimes...

Dave made the DC art scene more colorful, and less buttoned-down boring. We often take **art** as some deathly serious affair. Dave was having none of that, he was all about having fun with it.

We could all do well to remember such, and carry a bit of that with us going forward.... God speed Dave.

                                                                           - Kevin Mellema

Anger. Oil on Canvas, 2009 by Erik Thor Sandberg

Hirshhorn and Latin American artists

Since 2014, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library (HMSG) has received grants totalling $15,000 to catalog materials of Latin American artists.

Details here:  https://blog.library.si.edu/2016/01/new-to-the-hirshhorn-library-latin-american-artists/

Interesting that one of the things that they have collected is a recent catalog of Cuban artist Sandra Ramos show in New York. At the same time, the Hirshhorn has not once, but twice been offered original paintings by Ramos as gifts from two separate collectors and both times the museum has declined them. 

Most unusual vintage watercolor at auction

Someone in Florida has this most unusual watercolor that I did at the University of Washington School of Art in 1977 as part of some class assignment. 

It was an early exploration of my interest in tattoos as art and a predecessor to my current "Written on the Body" series. It has a starting bid of $150, which is a steal for works of that period.

Bid on it here.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

Renée Stout: Tales of the
Conjure Woman

American University Museum
at the Katzen Arts Center

January 26 - March 13, 2016

Opening Reception: Tonight, Saturday, January 30, 2016, 6:00pm - 9:00pm 

Renée Stout: Tales of the Conjure Woman opens at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center on January 30, 2016 and will remain on view through March 13, 2016. A gallery talk with the artist will take place on Saturday, January 30, 5-6pm and opening reception will take place 6 - 9pm.

The exhibition features recent work by Washington, DC-based Renée Stout, who is best known for her exploration of vestigial retentions of African cultural traditions as manifested in contemporary America.

For many years, the artist has used the alter ego Fatima Mayfield, a fictitious herbalist/fortuneteller, as a vehicle to role-play and confront issues such as romantic relationships, social ills, or financial woes in a way that is open, creative, and humorous. The exhibition focuses on the artist's assumed role through an array of works in various media. As Stout explains, "The common thread running through bodies of my work of the past several years is the continuing need for self-discovery and the need to understand and make sense of human motives and the way we relate and respond to each other."

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this scammer: 

Kenneth Anderson (kandy1111@outlook.com)
Hi there,
I'm an art lover/collector and I'm collecting a few pieces for my new house. I came across your artworks and I find them captivating. I would love to have some of your pieces. Send me pictures and info about your available works including their sizes,materials and prices so I can make an order.
Thanks,
Kenneth.

Paint Annapolis Call for Artists

Paint Annapolis is a five-day juried plein air painting competition May 30-June 5, with exhibition to follow until June 12. $15,000 cash awards. 

Entry is open to artists around the world. 30 artists will be accepted. 

Upload three images online - Deadline 16 Feb 2016.

Entry fee. 

Details: 410-268-4566 OR http://www.paintannapolis.org OR info@mdfedart.org

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory Drawings (1992-1993)

From 1992-1993 I was lucky enough to live in Sonoma, California (I was the last XO of the now-closed Naval Security Group Activity, Skaggs Island), in a cool house across from the Fire Station. My two daughters used to take classes at the Sonoma Ballet Conservatory, and like most of those places that are usually labors of love, they were always trying to raise funds through bake sales, etc.

I came up with the idea of doing some drawings of the students and then have an exhibition of the drawings at my then dealer (Presidio Gallery, also in Sonoma and closed many years ago).  The gallery agreed to the exhibition and that most of the profits from sales would go to the school.

Story in the Sonoma Index-Tribune about the show

Needless to say, all the work sold within a few minutes of the opening, as parents scrambled to get the drawing where their daughter was included. There was even some controversy, as the matriarch of one of Sonoma's oldest wine families had called the gallery prior to the opening and requested to buy all the works where her grand daughter was included. She faxed the gallerist a photo of little Amber (this was 1993... remember faxes?), and several of the pieces sold sight unseen!

The other parents were justifiably pissed, and I was very glad that I had nothing to do with the deal, and my poor dealer had a lot of explaining to do, especially to some of the other Sonoma wine blue bloods.

There were around 80 drawings all together in the exhibition - about 40 framed and 40 shrink wrapped in flat files - all sold! Below is a sampling of the show from some recently digitized slides.

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x18 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x18 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
10x8 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
10x8 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x18 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory (Study for the Above Piece) by F. Lennox Campello
24x18 inches. Graphite on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
10x8 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
20x16 inches. Pen and Ink on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
10x8 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x36 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x18 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
20x16 inches. Graphite on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Studies for Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x18 inches. Graphite Conte on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Napa, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
20x16 inches. Graphite on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
10x8 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory (Left Version) by F. Lennox Campello
20x16 inches. Graphite on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x18 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
16x24 inches. Pen and Ink Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
10x8 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
9x12 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
20x16 inches. Charcoal and Conte on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
10x8 inches. Graphite on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
14x11 inches. Charcoal and on Paper, 1993
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x18 inches. Ink Wash on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in San Francisco, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
18x24 inches. Pen and Ink on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
24x36 inches. Pen and Ink, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
12x9 inches. Graphite on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in Sonoma, CA

Elise Campello - Sonoma Ballet Conservatory by F. Lennox Campello
12x9 inches. Watercolor on Paper, 1992
In a private collection in San Francisco, CA

David Camero at Sitar Arts Center

David Camero
Traditional Yare Masks
and Other Actions Masks
January 31 – March 20, 2016

OPENING RECEPTION WITH THE ARTIST
Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 6:30 PM

About the masks series:

 

Referencing the traditional ritual ‘Diablos de Yare’ from Venezuela, David Camero’s “Traditional Yare Masks and Other Actions Masks” exhibit at Sitar Arts Center’s Cafritz gallery attempts to capture the cultural aspects of a long-standing tradition while also making the artwork accessible to a modern audience. The colorful masks will make for a truly unique exhibit that will awe and inspire the Sitar community.

 

For more information about David Camero and his work, please go to www.companiadelbouffon.com.

Please RSVP to attend this event.

 

 

SITAR ARTS CENTER
1700 Kalorama Road NW Suite 101
Washington, DC 20009

Phone: 202-797-2145
Fax: 202-483-0789
www.sitarartscenter.org

Postcards from the Edge

The 18th Annual
POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
is almost here!

January 29 - 31, 2016
Hosted by Sikkema Jenkins & Co
530 West 22nd Street, NYC

 

Featuring artworks by F. Lennox Campello, John Baldessari, Catherine Opie, Ed Ruscha, Katherine Bernhardt, William Wegman, Kara Walker, Arturo Herrera, Marilyn Minter, Geoffrey Hendricks, Penelope Umbrico, Charles LeDray, Julie Mehretu, John Waters, Jane Hammond, Hans Haacke, Polly Apfelbaum, Ross Bleckner, Kiki Smith, Robert Longo, Kay Rosen, Barry McGee, Louise Fishman, Tony Feher, Martha Wilson, Lawrence Weiner, Lorraine O'Grady, William Cordova, Jennie C. Jones, Marcel Dzama, Amy Sillman and 1500 others!!!*

* Click here for full list of participating artists

PREVIEW PARTY: FRIDAY, JANUARY 29th
The only opportunity to see the entire exhibition.
Silent Auction & Raffle Prizes. (No postcard sales.)

* Artist Preview from 6pm-8pm
Participating artists can attend the Preview for free (no RSVP required), starting at 6pm, one hour after VIP Preview. Additional guests $50 each (see below).

* VIP Preview begins at 5pm
$50 admission (payable at the door or online here) allows guests into the gallery one hour before the general doors open.  Beat the crowd and get an extra close look at all the artwork.

BENEFIT SALE
SATURDAY, JANUARY 30 from 10 AM–6 PM   (Buy 4–Get 1 Free)
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31 from 12 PM–4 PM      (Buy 2–Get 1 Free)

All postcard artwork only $85 each. Artworks displayed anonymously. Artist's name revealed after purchase. First-come, first-served. On Saturday, buy four postcard-sized artworks and choose a fifth one as a "thank you", and on Sunday, buy two postcards and get a third. 

$5 suggested admission.

NO AND: Eames Armstrong

NO AND
 
Eames Armstrong
MFA Thesis Show
Gallery 102, George Washington University

Exhibition on view January 19 - 30, 2016


NEW schedule of performances:

Wednesday, 1/27, 9pm

Thursday, 1/28 8pm (Just added) 

Friday, 1/29, 8pm (collaboration with Renée Regan) (reception 6pm)*
Saturday, 1/30 8pm** (Just added)

Gallery 102 is located in Smith Hall of Art, 801 22nd Street NW, Washington, D.C.  Open gallery hours are M-F 9-5, and any other time by appointment, contact: eames@gwmail.gwu.edu

The Most Interesting “Appropriation” Cases to Watch in 2016

Once again, appropriation in art and entertainment is a trending topic, so here are my picks for the most interesting “appropriation” cases to watch in 2016. Appropriation is defined as “the action of taking something for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission.” Some of these cases are new, others will be heating up, but all of them involve an alleged taking of another’s creative product without permission.

Read the whole article by Talia Kosh here.

Review of ABMB Week in Old Town Crier Newspapers

See it online here: http://oldtowncrier.com/2015/12/29/art-basel-miami-beach/. All photos by J. Jordan Bruns.

I think that DC area galleries and DC area non-profits and artists’ collectives need to go to the big dance or become non relevant.

Because of this, I decided to highlight a city on the other side of this great land to show how that city’s galleries make an impact on ABMB.

The City of Angels.

It was refreshing to see a lot of Los Angeles area art galleries in the various fairs during this last December, and of the many LA area galleries at the big dance, several stood out, not only to me, but also to Texas-based super, uber, monster collector Ardis Bartle, an experienced art fair aficionado, and an ass-kicking lady who hasn’t missed a single ABMB week in the last decade.

Once the VIP pre-opening parties were finished and the elegant crowds, booze and small food ceased to circulate, and tightly-dressed women in lethal-looking six inch heels finished their improbable art fair strolls with plastic wine glasses in their manicured hands, and handsome young men in slim suits and nerdy black glasses used their cell-phones to photograph the artwork, while third generation blue-eyed Cuban-American girls, four or five inches taller and 25 pounds lighter than their political refugee grandmothers, and slim as rifles, finished shooting selfies in front of the artwork, it was time to check out some LA galleries.

Snowzilla: From 2005

After two days of moving snow from A to B (don't forget the roofs or you'll have ice dams), I'm too sore for anything but a repost of one of my favorite posts of all time.

Originally posted in 2005:

Waste of Time

Since we opened our first gallery in 1996, we have rarely worked with "art consultants" or "interior decorators."

Overall, the experience (in the very few times that we've worked with them) has been quite a waste of time (such as the time that we wasted months dealing with Sen. Hillary Clinton's Georgetown-based interior designers to select a work by New York painter David FeBland.

Because the focus of our galleries is contemporary representational work ("realism with a bite"), it seldom agrees with the bland, "cannot afford to insult anyone," art selection process of most major corporate and business buyers (and public art projects).

But yesterday I bit again, and delivered work by several of our artists that had been selected by a very major law firm's art consultant to possibly hang in their new meeting room in a beautiful building in downtown DC. Come in, get a badge, drive to the loading dock and start delivering work to the 9th floor. As soon as I got there I knew that our chances were slim to none, as I saw a lot of this stuff.

And the very nice and professional art consultant was horrified to see that I had brought this piece by artist Javier Gil.

"Get that out of here before anyone sees it," she advised. "Nothing like that can even be considered and it may poison their minds about the rest."

Her favorite from our four artist selection was the work of our best-selling artist David FeBland. I explained that David's works have been selling very well, especially since the Europeans have discovered his work. Since his prices have been skyrocketing (law of supply and demand), we both doubted that they'd be interested in his work, since he was by far the most expensive artist in what was being presented.

But I schlepped all the work over, including a massive, framed Maxwell MacKenzie photo.

"Near Pomme de Terre Lake, Grant County, Minnesota, 1997"
Silver Gelatin, 1997 Maxwell MacKenzie

After a few trips I return to the gallery van, which had been parked in the loading dock, as directed, to find it blocked by a truck delivering paper supplies. I ask the guy nicely if he can please move a foot so that I can leave. He cusses me out.

I then waste 10 minutes of cussing and yelling and threatening the very large truck driver, near to a fist fight with a guy who looks like George Foreman, before another huge guy comes in and breaks up the argument... all that before I can leave, now in a total black mood.

Return to DC around 3:30PM to pick up the work. Back up into the tiny loading dock, where I manage to put a huge gouge on the left side of the new gallery van (less than 800 miles on it). Then I get a large smear of grease from one of the dumpsters on the back of my new suit, which I had naturally just worn for the first time this morning. Things are going great uh?

Up to the 9th floor, which for some strange reason, in this building is actually a few steps below the 7th floor.

Not too surprisingly, none of our work had been picked. And what was picked can best be summarized as "big, bold, large abstract art," mostly by names I had never heard of.

I can't say that I blame corporate art buyers, especially in selecting work for their public meeting spaces. We're at a juncture in our history where anything that could remotely be offensive to anyone, is not part of the PC art process. When was it the last time that you saw a nude in an American airport?

On one of the trips I run into a very tall woman who had been (I think) the head of the "art pickers" from the law firm; she sees me packing the David FeBland. "That was our favorite among all the artists," she says.

"He's our best-selling painter," I replied, too tired to inquire as to why he wasn't selected (I already know: price). On the massive table I see the work selected; around 20-30 pieces of mostly abstract, large, inexpensive work.

Waste of my time; scratch on my new van; possibly a ruined suit; and near fist fight with a huge burly truck driver... another day in the life of an art dealer.

A Blizzard is Enforced Surrender

A blizzard is enforced surrender. Just stop. No where to go. Nothing to do. We wait in our cocoons while nature takes her course. Let go and let her have her way. A power greater than ourselves, all of our selves, the entire megalopolis of our selves reminds us that it's her world. All disappears beneath the frozen purity. A white hush descends.

                                                - Amy Marx

Touchstone Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists

Touchstone Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists (2016-2018)

Open Call for Applications

Deadline: March 31, 2016

 WHAT is it?

The Fellowship provides a 2 year membership in Touchstone Gallery in downtown DC. This guarantees a solo exhibition as well as participation in gallery group shows, mentorship and a presence on the gallery website. The monetary value of the fellowship exceeds $4500.00

WHO can apply?

The Fellowship is awarded to 1 or more emerging artists in the Washington area who have not been represented by a commercial gallery in at least 10 years.

HOW to apply?

The application process for the 2016-2018 fellowship program is now open. The application and related information can be found on the TFA website,
www.touchstonefoundationdc.org

Trevor Young at Addison/Ripley Fine Art

TREVOR YOUNG

VOLTAGE

JANUARY 30 - MARCH 5, 2016

opening reception for the artist

Addison/Ripley Fine Art

Saturday, January 30th 5-7pm

Trevor Young, Two Currents,  2016, oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches

Montgomery County High School Students and Teachers Exhibition

Washington ArtWorks is the largest visual arts center in Montgomery County and will be hosting an opening reception for a gallery exhibition on Friday, February 5th from 6-9pm. 

The exhibition in both of their galleries is of photography work created by Montgomery County high school students and their instructors. 

The Montgomery County High School Photography Show features photography by high school students and their instructors. This exhibition gives hundreds of students across Montgomery County their first opportunity to display in a professional gallery, supporting the integration of the arts in high schools. 

Opening reception of Montgomery County High School Students and Teachers Exhibition

Opening Date: Friday, February 5th

Time: 6-9pm

Dates of Exhibition: February 5th - February 26th

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

Contact #: 301.654.1998

Address: 12276 Wilkins Ave. Rockville, MD 20852

Website: http://washingtonartworks.com/galleries-events

Art Talk

Barbara Januszkiewicz
The Value of the Arts

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 North Union Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

The curious case of private museums

Most excellent report at the link:

• To date there are 317 privately founded contemporary art museums in the world.
• The top 5 ranks by number of museums are held by South Korea, the United States, Germany, followed by China and Italy.
• The South Korean city of Seoul leads the ranking with 13 museums, followed by Berlin and Beijing with 9 each.
• The average size of a private museum is about 3,400square-meter.
• More than one third (35%) of private museums have over 20,000 visitors per year.
• The average age of a private museum founder is 65.
    

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT: https://www.larryslist.com/reports.php

A thought to shape the Shape of Things to Come

“It’s also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can lose all hope if you can’t laugh at yourself and at life in general.”

- Stephen Hawking

What Dan Zak did

Over the years, decades really, I've been complaining about the way in which the Washington Post treats its own visual arts backyard. If you go back to the very beginnings of this blog, well over a decade ago, you'll find it hard to see a week's worth of postings where I'm not complaining or bitching about something that the WaPo did, or most often didn't do, about our visual arts scene, galleries and artists.

When I first came to the DMV in the late 1980s (1987-1989) it was as a young Lieutenant in the Navy, and in those years I spent most of my summers sailing in the Arctic off the then Soviet mainland at the top of the world, I started reading the WaPo regularly. Back then, the WaPo had a daily section titled The Arts, which covered art galleries, museums, regional visual artists, etc., in addition to all the other genres of the arts.

I left the area for a few years, and lived in Scotland, and then in Sonoma, CA. I returned to the DC area in late 1993, and by then the precipitous decline in the WaPo's coverage of its city's visual art scene was just beginning.

I then began writing about the DMV visual arts scene for a lot of local, regional and national magazines, in the process becoming deeply immersed in the scene itself. In those latter years of the 1990s, the WaPo's Arts Editor was a nice, kind man named John Pancake. I developed a professional relationship with him, and every once in a while we'd meet for coffee and discuss the area's visual arts. It was he who once described deciding to open an art gallery as a "heroic undertaking."

In those years the paper still had multiple columns covering the visual arts, which included the usual Wednesday Galleries column, then authored by Ferdinand Protzman, as well as other ad hoc gallery and museum reviews by Paul Richards. It also included a weekly Wednesday column titled Arts Beat, then authored by Michael O'Sullivan, who as I recall held the title of Assistant Arts Editor. Arts Beat reflected the interests of its author, and essentially augmented the paper's coverage of the DC area visual arts scene.

By the end of the 90s, things began to unravel.

Almost against the will of the WaPo's leadership (as related to me back then by one of the editors of the WaPo Online), the newspaper went on a major expansion of its online presence and also an associated expansion of its printed paper coverage. This included the visual arts, and I was hired, along with Jessica Dawson and others, as freelancers to cover gallery shows for the paper's online site (I wonder where all those reviews are now - have they ever been archived and preserved by the WaPo?).

I can't remember exactly when Richards retired, but his retirement (to Scotland I think) caused all kinds of minor waves for the DC art scene. First, Protzman quit, some say because he was upset that he didn't get "promoted" to Richards' job. Instead, the WaPo began a hiring process and eventually brought Blake Gopnik from his Canadian newspaper to take over as the paper's chief art critic (my titling).

Protzman's departure also brought a need for a regular freelancer to do the Galleries column, and several of those of us who were doing online reviews about Galleries were interviewed. I declined the position once we got deep into it - at the time, as some of you may recall, I was also part of the Fraser Gallery, and didn't think that being a gallery co-owner and a regular Wednesday critic for the paper would pass the smell test with some; but the real victims would be the gallery's artists, as clearly they could never get at WaPo reviews.

Around 2000, Dawson (who had been writing art reviews for the Washington City Paper) was then hired as the freelancer to cover galleries and subsequently Gopnik was hired to cover all the visual arts. 

A few years later Pancake retired, and by the mid 2000s the Wednesday coverage shrunk significantly when Arts Beat was demoted to a twice-monthly column, refocused to cover all the arts, and then eventually terminated. Most of the damage to the visual arts coverage was started by then Style Section editor Eugene Robinson.

It was Robinson who began the process to let Blake Gopnik get away with only reviewing (with one or two very rare exceptions) museums, thus having the nation's only art critic too good to review his city's artists and art galleries. On July 6, 2006, Steve Reiss (the Style section's Asst. Editor) stated online: "As for Blake Gopnik, he is a prolific writer and I find it hard to argue that we should be giving up reviews of major museum shows so he can write more about galleries that have a much smaller audience."

When Robinson left, under the new editor Deborah Heard, the coverage got even worse, with Galleries being reduced to twice a month. That added up to around 25 columns a year to review the thousand or so gallery shows that the DC area gallery art scene had to offer in those days.

A few years ago, when Dawson quit the WaPo (2011) to go to work for the Hirshhorn and in the interim, the WaPo experimented with using a couple more freelancers, but both experiments ended badly from both sides. Eventually they hired Mark Jenkins, who is their current Galleries critic, and who (in my opinion) is the best from all the names mentioned here so far.

What is a constant over all these years and memories, is the miserly coverage of DMV artists and galleries by the world's second most influential newspaper.

And then this past weekend, WaPo writer Dan Zak showed us a brilliant glint of what this coverage could be, if the WaPo "got it."

Zak's The Polaroids of the Cowboy Poet is perhaps the best article that I have ever read on an artist.

Chris Earnshaw is an odd and brilliant and sloppy man who vibrates with great joy and grand melancholy. For decades he has ambled through bandstands, major motion pictures and demolition sites, searching for prestige and permanence, all while being ignored on the gray streets of a humdrum capital.

This work has Pulitzer written all over it, but more importantly, this article is exactly the sort of coverage of the DMV visual artists and galleries, that we've always clamored from the WaPo to do 2-3 times a year - as they do when some celebrity visits the city.

Dan Zak: Well Done! You've not only delivered a brilliant article, but also shown the WaPo and Washington, DC, and the DMV visual arts scene, how it is done.

At NOVA-Annandale’s Verizon Gallery

In celebration of 50 years in education, opportunities, and student success, Northern Virginia Community College has arranged a diverse art show at NOVA-Annandale’s Verizon Gallery in the Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center, featuring the work of NOVA art faculty and emeriti.


Dr. Erin Devine, assistant professor and director of the New Gallery for Contemporary Art co-curated the show with Schlesinger Center Exhibition Director Mary Welch Higgins.


“While curating and organizing this show with my colleagues, I learned quite a bit about the beginnings of NOVA from some of the emeriti artists like Michael Platt and Rebecca Kamen," Higgins said. “As I started looking at the work I noticed that, through multiple generations, it reflects the strength of the art department at NOVA and the different art classes the College offers.”

 

Twenty-six current NOVA faculty and emeriti contributed to the show, displaying a diverse collection of thought-provoking pieces that successfully highlight each artists’ creativity and love for exploring different art mediums. The NOVA 50th Anniversary Art Exhibition will be on display in the Verizon Gallery from Jan. 5 to Feb. 7 with an artists’ reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Jan. 28.

 

The Verizon Gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and often on weekends when events are scheduled. For more information about the art show, please see the press release on NOVA’s website.