PHOTO '16 at Multiple Exposures

October 2016 issue of Washingtonian magazine

“Curators from the Hirshhorn or National Gallery would rather take a cab to Dulles Airport to look at emerging artists in Berlin than they would take a cab to Adams Morgan to look at emerging artists here,” says Lennox Campello, an artist and former gallery owner. “They don’t do a good job of tending their own back garden.”

The current issue of Washingtonian magazine has a terrific article on ubercollectors Mera and Donald Rubell and the powerful impact they've had upon the DMV's art scene and the even more tectonic impact they're about to deliver with their plans for The Randall School:

The Rubells partnered with Telesis, a developer in DC, to buy the old school from the Corcoran for $6.5 million. Twenty percent of the apartments will be reserved for affordable housing, including live/work space for artists. The museum, which will occupy the Randall building, is to house part of the Rubells’ art collection. 

Says Telesis president Marilyn Melkonian: “It will be a total change and regeneration of that whole part of the neighborhood.”

Read the article by Brendan L. Smith here.

Studio space available

If you are a glass artists, and have always wanted a studio space to work on your glass, but didn't have room where you live, or didn't have a huge amount to invest in a giant glass studio.....then you might like the thought of becoming one of the studio artists at the Washington Glass School.


Your table/studio space runs $300 per month, and not only do you finally have a dedicated space for you to work in, but you also join a vibrant and successful community of glass artists and opportunities.


Details here.


3700 Otis Street, Mount Rainier, MD 20712202-744-8222
WashGlass.com

Two down and three to go!

This weekend we did both the Affordable Art Fair in NYC and the Texas Contemporary Art Fair in Houston (thank you Jodi Walsh for manning the booth in TX!).

Brutal work doing an art fair, but nearly always a benefit to an artist and to an art gallery.

Next?

SOFA in Chicago, CONTEXT Art Miami in Miami, and SCOPE Art Fair in Miami Beach!

Art Scam Alert!

Stay away from this scam artist:

From: dave@daveclemsonllc.com

Am interested in some of your products, do you ship to Switzerland and accept US issued credit card as payment?, you will contact my shipper who handles all of my shipment, they pick up the items at your location and deliver directly to my store doorstep without hassle.

Let me know if i can e-mail you what am interested in ordering.

Dave

Top picks for the Affordable Art Fair NYC

The Affordable Art Fair New York opened last Wednesday in Chelsea and runs through the weekend.

This popular art fair, versions of which run in multiple American and international cities, is clearly (based on my observations over many years) one of the key venues to acquire reasonably-priced art, both by new collectors as well as seasoned collectors looking for new talent.

I will also admit that this is one of my favorite art fairs on the planet: cool, trendy, well-organized, and superbly run.

As most seasoned art critics, artists, gallerists and art symbiots know, when you walk through art fairs over a period of years, in diverse cities and settings, often trends and connecting lines appear that are clearly obvious to the most casual observer.

The trend here this year seems to be an over abundance of pop art derivatives from artists all over the planet. There are also many artists, in all sorts of media and substrates, whom are rather effectively channeling the epic artists of the Washington Color School. There is stripe art everywhere, in every shape and form and drip factor!

There are also multiple flat brushes channeling Carmen Herrera minimalist style, which remained ignored though most of her life until the Brits "discovered" her work a few years ago, and suddenly the octogenarian became darling of the New York art scene (she's currently at The Whitney).

Warhol look-alikes are also all over the place, but this Warholian footprint is visible in every single art fair on the planet, from the most exclusive to the lowliest ABMB satellite fair.

Overall though, the fair remains a cornucopia of really good talent at very good prices, and AAFNYC continues to earn its reputation as a solid, good art fair for both emerging artists and emerging galleries. And it is also a place where we also always see some of the top blue chip galleries in the world showcase their new talent.

Here are some pieces that caught my eye:

Michele Mikesell ("Enmascarado" is depicted above) shows with DECORAZON, which has galleries in both London and New York. I was immediately attracted to her work, which reminded me a little of the DMV's Matt Sesow or the early work of Alabama's Michael Banks. Mikesell's wet sanding process delivers a beautifully crafted oil painting whose images are intelligent, disturbing and hypnotizing.

London Contemporary Art, obviously based in London, is showcasing the work of Michael Lukasiewicz, a very talented painter who could teach a lesson or two to the Washington Color School channellers about how a contemporary painter can stand on the shoulders of giants from the past and deliver something related, but fresh and new. Look at the way in his "Breathless" (acrylic and gesso on canvas) uses a little of Sam Gilliam's draped paintings color to offer a radical new approach to the use of color.

"Queen", depicted above, is from a series of gorgeous photographs by Dagmar Van Weeghel, represented by Amsterdam's The Public House of Art gallery. The power, presence and scale (very large photo) make an unforgettable impact from the very beginning. At the risk of revealing my childhood heroes, Conan The Barbarian is not too far from this powerful woman, and in some universe she might be his queen.

I also liked Marek Zya's sculptures with Carmel, Indiana gallery Evan Lurie, and the mixed media pieces by Ruben Ireland with NYC's CURIOOS gallery.

The fair is at the Met Pavilion in Chelsea and runs through Sunday.

"Tipping Point" finds a home in NYC

That's Alma Selimovic's "Tipping Point" being packed up and heading to the home of an NYC collector! We're at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC, booth 1.36

Wanna show your work in Miami?

 Update: All done with the below call...

We have an opportunity to sponsor an artist for a solo exhibition at the "public spaces" of the next Context Art Fair in Miami during Art Basel week. Context is the sister fair to Art Miami and in my opinion one of the top fairs during ABMB. It's the fair that we do each year!

Artist would be responsible for all logistics, costs, etc., and keeps 100% of all sales - we're just the sponsor... Anyone interested send me an email to lennycampello at hotmail dot com for all details...

Hurry! Will pick one person in next 24 hours!

In NYC #aafnyc

Whitney Museum of Art, one street over from my NYC hotel

Arrived at NYC after a surreal drive where I never slowed down all the way from Maryland, all the way through the empty Holland Tunnel, and eerily empty Manhattan backstreets... made it all the way to the hotel on Jane Street in 3.5 hours or so!

$60 bucks a day to park the gallery van across the street from the Met Pavillion, where the Fall edition of the Affordable Art Fair starts tomorrow!

The Affordable Art Fair, specifically designed and curated for those just beginning to collect art as well as seasoned collectors looking for emerging artists, is back in New York, from September 28th to October 2nd!

Van's packed

The van is packed, and we're heading to NYC later tonight - the Affordable Art Fair NYC opens tomorrow. We're featuring Lori Katz, Dulce Pinzon, Elissa Farrow-Savos and Alma Selimovic!


Come see us in booth 1.36.

Tipping Point
2016 by Alma Selimovic
110x60x75in
Welded steel, wire, copper patina, stone

We're going to the fair!

Lori Katz
Wall of Squares
55” x 45” x 2.5"

Stoneware with slips, underglaze, glaze, and mixed media including high-temperature wire,
oil paint, cold wax, metal leaf

You will be able to see this piece and many others works by DMV master ceramic artist Lori Katz in New York at the coming Affordable Art Fair. We will have works by Katz, Dulce Pinzon, Elissa Farrow-Savos, Alma Selimovic and The Lenster.

UUUUUUyyyyy!

Check out this call for artists....

If I was a politician.... then:

One side: This is a scandalous rip off designed to charge a huge commission (66%) to artists....

Other side: This is an opportunity for artists to support an arts organization via your artwork, while at the same time "seeding" your art through new collectors.

Everything has a ying and a yang, everything has two sides, for every action there's an equal, but opposite reaction.

Moral of the story? ====> Dogma in politics sucks! (Brought to you by a fine arts example...)

Cough, cough.... 

PS - I plan to participate and support this call.

Artomatic@Baltimore

CALL FOR ARTISTS

Artomatic@Baltimore

Artomatic is pleased to announce Artomatic@Baltimore as the first 

independently organized and licensed Artomatic event.

Artomatic@Baltimore 

is happy to announce the 

Call For Artists! 

 Be a part of the first ever 

Artomatic event of its kind to be held 

in Baltimore, within the historic 

Montgomery Park building 

November 4, 2016-December 10, 2016

Online registration began Monday, September 19th!

www.artomaticbaltimore.org

New Altar piece heading to Texas

The Affordable Art Fair is in New York City next week (send me a note if you'd like some passes). And the Texas Contemporary Art Fair is in Houston also next week and at the exact same time! (send me a note if you'd like some passes). 

In New York we will debut new work by Mexico's amazing photographer Dulce Pinzon and in Texas we will showcase her epic True Superheroes series. 

Also in NYC, there will be new work by the very talented Lori Katz, Elissa Farrow-Savos and Alma Selimovic!

In Texas we will also showcase work by the superbly gifted artists Jodi Walsh and Georgia Nassikas.

The below new piece is heading to Texas... it has several hundred digital files of artwork randomly selected from the web using Google Images and script that does random search on parameters such as "famous artist", etc. The digital image changes every five seconds.

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

“At the Altar of Modern Art" by F. Lennox Campello
2016. Charcoal, Conte and Embedded Electronics. 36 X 18

 

Opportunity in the other Washington

 Deadline for application: Monday, October 17, 2016

The City of Auburn is seeking artists and/or artist groups working in two-dimensional media to exhibit their work at three City of Auburn gallery spaces during 2017. Galleries are within City operated buildings including City Hall, Auburn Senior Center (Cheryl Sallee Gallery) and Community and Event Center. Artists and/or artists groups of diverse mediums are encouraged to apply, including but not limited to: paint, ink, pencil, mixed media, textiles, mosaic, glass, recycled materials, photography, calligraphy, collage, fiber art, etc.

Details here.

Opportunity for Artists

The City of Mountain View’s Visual Arts Committee is inviting artists and artist teams working in a variety of media to exhibit public art in the lobby of the Center for Performing Arts for the 2017 season.

This year the Visual Arts Committee is requiring a theme of Global Cultural Art. Global Cultural Art is described as how cultures and communities have defined and derived their art, art representitive of different cultures. All artwork must be able to be hung on the Center for Performing Arts system per the requirements listed under Installation on the Floor/Site Plan.
The rotating exhibits are approximately nine weeks in length and are viewed by thousands of people visiting downtown Mountain View and attending shows at the Center for Performing Arts. The Visual Arts Committee would like to encourage exhibits by all local professional artists residing in the 11 San Francisco Bay Area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma) and, the City will provide insurance, installation and will offer a small stipend to help defray costs.

Apply here - No fees!

Artomatic in Baltimore!

CALL FOR ARTISTS: Artomatic@Baltimore!

Artomatic@Baltimore is happy to announce the Call For Artists! 

 

 Be a part of the first ever Artomatic event of its kind to be held in Baltimore, within the historic Montgomery Park building. 

Online registration starts today Monday, September 19th!

www.artomaticbaltimore.org

In process

Two new drawings in process and which will be hopefully ready for the Affordable Art Fair in NYC in two weeks...

The Batman Naked and The Boy Wonder Naked - unfinished - by F. Lennox Campello, c. 2016

31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards special honorees and finalists

Mayor Muriel Bowser and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) have announced the special honorees and finalists of the 31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards.

My good bud, printmaker and visual artist (and DMV treasure) Lou Stovall will receive the Mayor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. Stovall is the founder of Workshop, Inc., and it a master printmaker who has been commissioned to print works of such noted artists as Josef Albers, Peter Blume, Alexander Calder, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Loïs Mailou Jones and others.

Theatre producer Julianne Brienza will receive the Mayor's Arts Award for Visionary Leadership. Brienza is a founder and current president and chief executive officer of Capital Fringe, which connects multi-disciplinary artistic experiences to over 40,000 audiences annually and has grown to become the second largest unjuried Fringe Festival in the United States.

Poet and literary activist E. Ethelbert Miller will receive the Mayor's Arts Award for Distinguished Honor. Miller is the author of several collections of poetry, and his anthology "In Search of Color Everywhere" was awarded the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award in 1994. He has been the editor of Poet Lore, the oldest poetry magazine in the United States, and was founder and director of the Ascension Poetry Reading Series, which presented African American poets and poets of color to the general public.

"Our three special honorees represent some of the brightest, most accomplished talents in the District of Columbia," said Arthur Espinoza, Jr., Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "The impact of their work is felt locally, nationally and internationally. They, along with all this year's award finalists, represent the incredible richness and depth of our city's creative communities."
In addition to the special honorees, awards will be presented to DC-based individual artists and organizations in the following categories: Outstanding New Artist, Excellence in the Humanities, Outstanding Student, Excellence in the Arts. Excellence in Arts Teaching and Excellence in the Creative Industries.

The 2016 Mayor's Arts Award finalists are: Story District, Michael Janis, DC Jazz Festival, Washington Improv Theatre, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, Washington Performing Arts, DC Shorts, Pan American Symphony Orchestra, Post Classical Ensemble, Cory L. Stowers, Falun Dafa Association of Washington, Carolyn Malachi, One Common Unity, Sandy Bellamy, Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, Dance Metro DC, Stone Soup Films, Leron Boyd, DC SCORES, Project Create, Amanda Swift, LifePieces to Masterpieces, Washington Performing Arts, Dawn Johnson, Inner City-Inner Child, Young Playwrights' Theater, Split This Rock, Max Tyler Gibbons, Tara Campbell and Maverick Lemons.


My bet is on Michael Janis... of course!

The 31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards will be presented on Thursday, September 22 at 7:00 PM at the Historic Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U Street NW, Washington, DC. Admission is free and open to the public. This year, the annual awards are presented as part of 202Creates, a new initiative of Mayor Bowser's that showcases the diversity of the District's creative economy. For more information, visit www.dcarts.dc.gov or call 202-724-5613.

Aubrey Beardsley at auction

A series of drawings that launched the professional career of fin de siècle artist Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98) are up for sale at Swann Auction Galleries in New York on September 29.

Chapter ornaments for a publication of Thomas Mallory’s medieval masterpiece, Le Morte d’Arthur, the drawings carry motifs that were to recur in Beardsley’s work throughout his short-lived career, as well as displaying the individual style that took him from the Arts & Crafts movement to the Aesthetic movement and Art Nouveau.

Fresh to the market after nearly 30 years, the works will appear in Swann Galleries’ Illustration Art auction. They are not just the accomplished creations of an emerging artist, but important historical documents casting light on a seminal moment in art history.

In his 1988 article Thomas Mackenzie and the Beardsley Legacy, art historian Colin White describes how, in 1893, the newly established publishing house JM Dent commissioned the 21-year-old Beardsley to illustrate the 12-part edition of Mallory’s work, instructing him to use woodcuts by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Coley Burne Jones as inspiration.

So successful were Beardsley’s initial drawings, says White, that they enraged William Morris, the leader of the Arts & Crafts movement, in whose Kelmscott Press volumes the Burne Jones woodcuts had appeared. Morris saw Beardsley’s work as little more than plagiarism of the Kelmscott house style.

Eventually overcome with enormity of the task ahead of him, Beardsley started to fill in areas of detail with black, emulating Japanese woodblock prints, an exercise that led him to experiment with a new style and direction in his work.

With a provenance directly back to JM Dent, this is the first time that the drawings offered in the Illustration Art sale have appeared at auction since 1988.

The first up for sale is Rose Bush, an ornamental device for Book VI, chapter VI of Le Morte d’Arthur. In pen and ink on paper, it comes estimated at $3,000 to $4000. The rose is a recurrent symbol for decadence in Beardsley’s work, and the almost abstract nature of this design shows the mastery of his hand.

The following lot is another ornamental device, this time of Three Stylized Clematis Flowers, created for Book VI chapter XVIII, and it carries the same estimate.

The slightly smaller ornamental device for Book VI chapter XII is of Four Large Lillies and is guided at $2,000 to $3,000, while the final lot, encompassing two slightly cruder ornamental devices, Dog Roses, and Three Stylized Leaves, for Book II, chapter VI and VII are being offered together at $1,200 to $1,800.

By coincidence, the sale also features a stunning watercolor illustration by Thomas Mackenzie (1887-1944), the greatly admired Bradford-born contemporary of Beardsley.

Mackenzie illustrated works such as Arthur Ransome’s Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp in Rhyme and Arthur and his Knights, by Christine Chaundler. He landed his first commission, The Crock of Gold, an Irish folk tale by James Stephens, after the intended illustrator, Arthur Rackham, died.

Mackenzie’s richly colored, dreamlike illustrations evoke a sense of magic and other-worldliness that echo both Rackham and Beardsley. The lot on offer shows why he is ripe for rediscovery by a wider audience.

He saw Cairilin Ni Murrachu walking a little way in front comes from The Crock of Gold and is a watercolor and pencil on board. At 15¼ x 10 inches, and dated 1925, the signed image is estimated at $3,000 to $5,000.

Colin Kaepernick doesn't know this...

Wanna know about one of the world's most racist dictatorships? Click here.

Also, I believe that 400,000+ heroes buried at Arlington Cemetery is more than 400,000 reasons to stand for the national anthem.

Top 100 Art Blogs in the world

​

Hi Lenny,
 

My name is Anuj Agarwal. I'm Founder of Feedspot.

I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog Daily Campello Art News  has been selected by our panelist as one of the Top 100 Art Blogs on the web.

http://blog.feedspot.com/art_blogs/

I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world. This is the most comprehensive list of  Top 100 Art Blogs   on the internet and I’m honored to have you as part of this!

Dulce Pinzon "Historias del Paraiso"

Here come the art fairs

Del Ray Artisans Presents Vibrant “Local Flavor” Art Exhibit

Opening Reception: Friday, October 7 from 7-9pm
Exhibit Dates: October 7-30, 2016

This October Del Ray Artisans presents a collection of artwork from member artists that highlight the things they adore, crave, and experience in their unique and beloved neck of the woods. The art exhibit is called Local Flavor and celebrates the special touches found in community. Come to the opening reception on Friday, October 7 from 7-9pm to meet many of the artists, vote for the “Peoples Choice” award winner, and enjoy all the warm and welcoming artwork. Special thanks to local businesses Rosemarino d’ Italia, Taqueria el Poblano, and Let’s Meat on the Avenue for sponsoring artist awards.

 

The opening reception will also be your first chance to place your bids in the “Birdhouses of Del Ray” silent auction. Artisan birdhouses are being auctioned from October 7 until October 25 at 9pm. Winners will be notified to pick up their prized birdhouses during regular gallery hours. Proceeds from the silent auction benefit Del Ray Artisans.

 

The Local Flavor exhibit will run from October 7-30, 2016. The curator, Dawn Wyse Hurto, also invites the public to drop off donated children’s costumes for the neighborhood Halloween Parade. Costumes will be collected at the gallery from October 7-28. The parade is organized by the Del Ray Business Association and will be held on Sunday, October 30 starting at 2pm.

 

Del Ray Artisans is a nonprofit arts organization in the Del Ray neighborhood located in the City of Alexandria. Del Ray Artisans members fashioned this creative community group using their talent, sweat, and love; host at least 10 art exhibits annually; and organize many ongoing programs and special events. During the month of October mark your calendar for:

• Partners in Art: Monday, October 10, 2-4pm
• Life Drawing Clothed Session: Wednesday, October 12, 2-5pm (Short/Long Poses)
• Life Drawing Regular Sessions: Wednesday, October 12, 6:30-9:30pm (Long Poses); Sunday, October 23, 9:30-11:30am (Gesture); Wednesday, October 26, 2-5pm (Short/Long Poses) and 6:30-9:30pm (Long Poses)
• Annual Member Meeting/Board Elections: Tuesday, October 25, 7-9pm
• Come Play with Collage Cut Ups: Thursday, October 27, 7-9pm
• Cat-urday Toy Making: Saturday, October 29, 10am-12pm

The art exhibit, reception, and events will be at Del Ray Artisans gallery at the Colasanto Center, 2704 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22301. Gallery hours are: Thursdays, 12–6pm; Fridays and Saturdays, 12–9pm; and Sundays, 12–6pm. The gallery is free, open to the public and handicap accessible.

 

For more information, please visit www.DelRayArtisans.org, or contact the curator Dawn Wyse Hurto at dawn@dawnds.com.

Lest we forget



"Studio View, 9/11"
Oil on Canvas c. 9/11/2001 by David FeBland

 

Maurine Littleton Gallery presents  “Echoes of Leaves and Shadows”, a solo exhibition of new glass works and sculptures by Washington, DC artist Michael Janis opening Friday, September 16, 2016. 

Janis is clearly one of the DMV's blue chip artists, and in the many years of my seeing thousands of artists' works at art fairs all over the planet, I've yet to see anyone whose work comes close to Janis' enviably distinct approach to a very difficult technique.

He has developed and refined an intuitive technique over many years, creating detailed imagery by manipulating glass powder. His illustrative works in glass are dreamy and beautifully stylized. His moody glass panels feature partially obscured people submersed in nature or seemingly dissolving beneath colors and patterns. His work explores the unseen sides of life, longing and loneliness, juxtaposed with fragile beauty. The atmosphere in his subject matter is often presented as if in a dream or limbo-like state, with elements of surrealism. 

Michael Janis: Echoes of Leaves and Shadows

Maurine Littleton Gallery

1667 Wisconsin Ave. NW

Washington, DC 20007

(202) 333-9307

Sept 16 – Oct 15, 2016 

Opening Reception Friday, September 16, 6-8pm 

ABOUT THE ARTIST 

Born in Chicago, IL, after a 20 year career as an architect in the United States and Australia, Michael Janis returned to the US with a focus on working with glass. In 2005, Janis became a Co-Director of the Washington Glass School and Studio. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2012, Janis went to England's University of Sunderland and taught at the UK's National Glass Centre where he became an Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for International Research in Glass (IIRG). The James Renwick Alliance (JRA) named him as their Distinguished Glass Artist in 2014, and he presented and lectured about his work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) recently advised that they had selected Janis as a finalist in "Excellence in the Arts" category of the 31st Annual Mayor’s Arts Award .

The honors will be awarded September 22, 2016 at the Historic Lincoln Theatre.

Academy 2016

CONNERSMITH has announced ACADEMY 2016, the 16th annual invitational survey of outstanding work by MFA / BFA students in the Washington / Baltimore area. This year's exhibition will be held online on their website as they complete construction on their new gallery space at 1013 O St., NW, Washington, DC, in the heart of the Shaw Historic District. 
 
Exhibition founder and curator Dr. Jamie Smith invited the following artists to participate:
 
Artists: Sara Al Haddad, Eames Armstrong, Sutton Demlong, Carey Francis, Kyle Kogut, Lydia Lee, Rosemary Markowski, Rea Martin, Calli Moore, Alex Schechter, Michael Schiffer, Josh Sender, Elizabeth Elsie Shannon, Andrew Windham, Dane Winkler, Jowita Wyszomirska.
 
Representing Institutions: American University, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, George Washington University, Maryland Institute College of Art, University of Maryland.


The exhibition runs September 8 - September 30, 2016

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: September 15, 2016.


No submission fee, up to three entries. Bloomsburg University invites artists to submit work in all mediums for an upcoming exhibition, (De)constructing Our Identities to coincide with the Ninth Annual Mid-Atlantic LGBTQA Conference in Bloomsburg, PA. This year’s conference deals with navigating and (de)constructing our identities. Our aim for the exhibition is to feature artists who explore how all facets of a person’s identity impacts their lived experiences as members of LGBTQA communities. Artists who explore the various complications of queer identities and how those identities are constructed or deconstructed are encouraged to apply. https://www.bloomu.edu/LGBTQA/Conference/Art

DC's first Minister of Culture

Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) has announced SHELDON FOR DC, a public art performance directed by the artist Sheldon Scott. The citywide performance revolves around the campaign of a candidate -- referred to simply as "Sheldon" and played by a half-dozen actors -- who is running to become DC's first Minister of Culture. It will unfold over the next two months in the form of rallies, door-to-door campaigning, meet-the-candidate social events, and an 8-Ward whistle-stop tour.

 

"This is a campaign with a real agenda, which is, simply put, about putting artists first in the policies that impact our city's culture," says Peter Nesbett, WPA's executive director and Sheldon's Campaign Manager. "That is why it is so well aligned with WPA's interests. It doesn't much matter that the office of Minister of Culture doesn't yet exist."

 

SHELDON FOR DC promises a brighter, more creative future for DC. The campaign seeks to unite and rally hundreds of actors, artists, dancers, designers, musicians, and writers into a potent, vocal, political force. If it achieves this, SHELDON FOR DC could become a movement, with a life that extends well beyond this election cycle. If it doesn't, it will be understood, retrospectively, as an episodic piece of performance art.

 

The campaign kicks off with a rally at The Big Chair in Anacostia on Saturday, September 17, from12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Additional events can be found on the campaign website at www.sheldon4dc.org.

 

Situating a project like SHELDON FOR DC within the history of art is not a particularly easy task. Few visual artists have held political office in the U.S. since the painter George Caleb Bingham was elected to the Missouri legislature in 1848. Ad Reinhardt famously ran and lost in the race for New York City mayor in the 1930s, as did Patrick Brill (aka Bob & Roberta Smith), who ran for Parliament in London in 2014. But this project, with its fictitious basis, obviously isn't about winning or losing an election. Instead, it is about mobilizing a constituency. It is about listening and giving voice to DC's artist community, imagining a city where artists have a seat at the table in local government and cultural planning, and forging a vision for DC culture in the future.

For that reason, WPA is complementing the campaign-performance with events that reflect on the relationship of art and politics:

Kate McGraw on How to Run for Political Office Thursday, September 22, 6:30 p.m.   Artist and former DC resident Kate McGraw is running as an Independent for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Come learn what Kate has picked up along the way, how being an artist has informed her political thinking, and how you too might start your own campaign.   Born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Kate McGraw earned a BFA from Penn State University and a MFA from CUNY Brooklyn College. She has exhibited at Curator's Office, Washington, DC; Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC; Zentral Bibliothek of Zurich, Switzerland; among other venues; and has received grants from DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. McGraw currently works to give voice to sustainable agricultural issues and animal welfare awareness in the arts Ellen Lupton on Campaign Identities, with Christian Dutilh of Composite Co. Wednesday, October 26, 6:30 p.m. Curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City, and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Ellen Lupton is one of the pre-eminent design curators and editors in the U.S. Join us for an evening on the history of campaign identity design. She will be joined by Christian Dutilh, co-designer of the SHELDON FOR DC platform. Ellen Lupton is 2007 recipient of the AIGA Gold Medal, one of the highest honors given to a graphic designer or design educator in the U.S. Her publications include Thinking with Type (2004), Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things (2009), and Graphic Design Thinking (2011). Christian Dutilh is Principal of Composite Co., a branding and design studi o. For more information on these events and SHELDON FOR DC, please visit www.wpadc.org.

Two new curators at SAAM

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has enhanced its curatorial staff with two new appointments--Sarah Newman and Melissa Ho--who will bring fresh perspectives to the museum's collection, and future exhibitions and acquisitions.

Newman is the museum's James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art. Ho is the curator of 20th-century art. Each will be responsible for research, exhibitions and acquisitions related to the museum's collection. These two join nine curators currently on staff or film and media arts, photography, sculpture, contemporary craft, folk and self-taught art, Latino art, 19th-century painting, a chief curator who specializes in 20th-century art and a curator of contemporary interpretation.

Ho began work Aug. 22. Newman began at the museum Sept. 6.

"These new curatorial voices will add terrific energy to the museum's initiatives and will engage contemporary audiences who are interested in how America became the country it is today," said Betsy Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

"I am delighted to welcome Sarah and Melissa to the museum's curatorial team, and look forward to their building the collection to reflect the experience of Americans today with an emphasis on global connections," said Virginia Mecklenburg, chief curator.

Newman was curator of contemporary art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from 2008 to 2014. While at the Corcoran, she developed "NOW at the Corcoran," a series of commissioned exhibitions and performances by emerging and midcareer artists including Mia Feuer, Spencer Finch, Ellen Harvey, Chris Martin and Enoc Perez. In 2011, she organized "30 Americans," a survey of contemporary African American art, and she curated "Washington Color and Light: Works from the Washington Color School" (2010). Most recently, she has been a guest curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where she is organizing "Theaster Gates: The Minor Arts," scheduled to open in 2017, and at the Katzen Arts Center at American University, where she curated a midcareer retrospective of Washington, D.C.-based painter Maggie Michael in 2016. Newman earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College, and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005.

Ho comes to the museum from the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, where she was a curator from 2011 to 2016. Recent exhibitions include "Shirin Neshat: Facing History" (2015), which she co-curated with Melissa Chiu, "Salvatore Scarpitta: Traveler" (2014) and "Barbara Kruger: Belief+Doubt" (2012). Her current project, "ONE THING: VIETNAM, Art and Engagement, 1965-1975," explores the interaction between the American war in Vietnam and art; it will open at SAAM in 2019. She earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 and completed coursework for her doctorate. Her thesis examined Hong Kong-born American photographer Tseng Kwong Chi.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: September 17, 2016.


The Miniature Painters, Sculptors & Gravers Society of Washington, DC announces a call to artists for a juried art exhibition at the Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, November 20 - December 31, 2016. Juror: Judy Lalingo, Professional Artist. $7,000 in awards. Miniature artwork only. $25-$45 entry fee. Deadline: September 17, 2016.


More information visit, http://mpsgs.org Contact: email nancy@miniartsupply.biz or call 301-977-2190.

31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards

You're Invited!   

31st Annual Mayor's Arts Awards

Thursday | September 22, 2016 | 7:00 pm 

Historic Lincoln Theatre

1215 U Street NW

Washington, DC 20009

Doors Open 6:00 PM

Reception following Awards

Creative formalwear suggested 

The Mayor's Arts Awards are the most prestigious honors conferred by the city on individual artists, teachers, nonprofit organizations and patrons of the arts.

Special Honorees

Lou Stovall

Lifetime Achievement

Julianne Brienza

Visionary Leadership

E. Ethelbert Miller

Distinguished Honor

Individuals and Organizations will be recognized in six categories: Excellence in the Arts, Excellence in the Humanities,
Excellence in Creative Industries, Outstanding Student Award, Excellence in Arts Teaching, and Outstanding New Artist

2016 Mayor's Arts Award finalists:
Story District, Michael Janis, DC Jazz Festival, Washington Improv Theatre, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capitol, Washington Performing Arts, DC Shorts, Pan American Symphony Orchestra, Post Classical Ensemble, Cory L. Stowers, Falun Dafa Association of Washington, Carolyn Malachi, One Common Unity, Sandy Bellamy, Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, Dance Metro DC, Stone Soup Films, Leron Boyd, DC SCORES, Project Create, Amanda Swift, LifePieces to Masterpieces, Washington Performing Arts, Dawn Johnson, Inner City-Inner Child, Young Playwrights' Theater, Split This Rock, Max Tyler Gibbons, Tara Campbell,
Maverick Lemons

Admission is free, RSVP here

www.dcarts.dc.gov | 202-724-5613

New book by Sharon Louden

Artist Sharon Louden has a new book out!

I am also excited to announce that my new book, The Artist as Culture Producer, is now available to pre-order at a discount until October 1st (use code PRARTIST).  

To support the release of the book, we are now raising money for an extensive conversation tour across America and abroad that will connect contributors of the book with other regional artists and community stakeholders.  

Please support our community building efforts by donating here:
http://www.livesustain.org/donate

Lisa Yuskavage censored

The cover of Australian art magazine Vault, which features a painting of a naked pregnant woman, has been censored for newsagencies, raising questions about perceptions of the female body. 

The painting, titled Brood (2005-2006), is by well-known New York artist Lisa Yuskavage, whose sought-after work sparks million-dollar prices.

Read the story here. 

The Dying Gray Lady

The New York Times this week quietly ended its coverage of restaurants, art galleries, theaters and other commercial and nonprofit businesses in the tri-state region, laying off dozens of longtime contributors and prompting protests from many of the institutions that will be affected. They foresee an impact not only on patronage but, in the case of the nonprofits, on their ability to raise funds to survive.

The NYT is doing exactly what the Washington Post started doing over a decade ago, when the disastrous Style section period under Eugene Robinson all but destroyed the local visual arts coverage by the WaPo.

Another nail on the coffin of the dead tree media. 

Read the story here.

Texas Contemporary

We'll be at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair September 29 - October 2, 2016 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. Showcasing Jodi Walsh, Georgia Nassikas, Dulce Pinzon and The Lennythron!

How to give artists life after they die

An artist’s estate is successful when it is able to keep the work alive: when subsequent generations of artists draw inspiration from it and when curators, researchers and collectors continuously find new ways to approach it. This goal is achieved when the estate initiates dialogue and exhibitions, contextualises the work, and makes it accessible to contemporary artists. Reaching it, however, requires a quantity of high-quality works as well as financial resources. Furthermore, a vast array of knowledge and skills, ranging from an art-historical understanding of the work to managerial and business know-how, are crucial to the success of this endeavour. Thus, heirs often devote a significant portion of their lives to this work.

Read this fascinating advisory article here.

Trawick Prizewinners announced!

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, a juried art competition produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, announced the top three prize winners last night during the exhibition’s opening. Lauren Adams from Baltimore, MD was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; Sarah Irvin from Springfield, VA was named second place and given $2,000; and Ben Marcin from Baltimore, MD was bestowed third place and received $1,000.

Lauren Adams, who earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina and her Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University, mines the histories of power, labor and material culture to make surprising connections that resonate with current sociopolitical issues. Her work has been featured at ConnerSmith in Washington, D.C., The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, Contemporary Applied Arts in London, UK, Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, MO and the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, PA, among others. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and held residencies at the Cite in Paris, France and the Jentel Foundation in Wyoming. She received the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Award in 2007, was a finalist for the Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize in 2014, and was recently named a 2016 Pollock Krasner Foundation grant recipient.

2016 Trawick Prize Finalists

Lauren Adams, Baltimore, MD

Cindy Cheng, Baltimore, MD

Leah Cooper, Baltimore, MD

Sarah Irvin, Springfield, VA

Dean Kessmann, Washington, D.C.

Ben Marcin, Baltimore, MD

Tony Shore, Baltimore, MD

William Wylie, Charlottesville, VA

The work of the finalists will be on exhibit at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, until September 24. The public opening reception will be held Friday, September 9 from 6-8pm. Gallery hours for the duration of the exhibit are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 6pm.

Entries were juried by Stéphane Aquin, Chief Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Hasan Elahi, Associate Professor, Department of Art at University of Maryland and Rebecca Schoenthal, Curator of Exhibitions and Co-Interim Director at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia.

The Trawick Prize was established in 2003 by Carol Trawick, a longtime community activist in downtown Bethesda. She is the past Chair of both the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and Bethesda Urban Partnership, and also the Founder of the Bethesda Painting Awards. In 2007, Ms. Trawick founded the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation to assist health and human services and arts non-profits in Montgomery County.

The Trawick Prize is one of the first regional competitions and largest prizes to annually honor visual artists. To date, The Trawick Prize has awarded $205,000 in prize monies and has exhibited the work of more than 130 regional artists. Previous Best in Show recipients include Richard Cleaver, 2003; David Page, 2004; Jiha Moon, 2005; James Rieck, 2006; Jo Smail, 2007; Maggie Michael, 2008; Rene Trevino, 2009; Sara Pomerance, 2010; Mia Feuer, 2011; Lillian Bayley Hoover, 2012; Gary Kachadourian, 2013; Neil Feather, 2014 and Jonathan Monaghan, 2015.

#artscam

As many of you know, I love busting the mutants who are perennially trying to separate artists from their artwork through a scam.

#artscam on Twitter is also a great place to visit every once in a while to see who's been busted through TweetLand.