Austin Shull at Micro Gallery

Metro Micro Gallery Presents: 

Austin Shull

Reflections on Ardor

May 6^th – June 10^th, 2017

Curated by Cara Rose Leepson 

Opening Reception: Wednesday May 10^th 7pm

Reflections on Ardor presents a site-specific installation created by Washington, DC based artist Austin Shull which questions dominant tropes of romance and passion. The global allure of love and romance have been magnified by mass consumerism and often, the expectations of these sentimental feelings are skewed by reality. Utilizing a teleidoscope to abstract stereotypical romantic photographic imagery, Shull deconstructs the surface level idealism of romance and engages the viewer by questioning their own personal reflection and participation in this reimagined, seemingly romantic scene. 

“For instance, a common image that comes to mind when thinking about romance is a stock picture of a couple walking down the beach holding hands, or perhaps kissing as the ocean waves lap at their feet. Does this unknowingly become the imagery on which we base our desires and fantasies, and in so doing begin a search for qualities of life founded in dislocated representations.” – Austin Shull

Austin Shull is a multi-disciplinary artist, native of Washington, DC and has been a resident at Arlington Art Center since 2015. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture summer of 2008, and the Whitney Independent Study Program 2007-2008. Shull received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2007 and a BA from the Bard College in 2001. He has exhibited work nationally and internationally at venues including the Cooper Union, Syracuse University, International Print Center, Pratt Institute, Nurture Art, and Exit Art.

Guest Curator Cara Rose Leepson brings her vision into this exhibit. She is now part of the pay it forward initiative of Metro Micro Gallery. We welcome her effort in mentoring and guiding Austin Shull in this unique space. Leepson moved to Washington, DC from Charleston, South Carolina in 2010 to pursue her MA in Art + Museum Studies at Georgetown University. Prior to joining the staff of Transformer in early 2016, she worked for a number of arts organizations in DC including Hillyer Art Space and Glenstone Foundation.

Metro Micro Gallery is committed in creating opportunities that will inspire more creative collaborations and enrich our community. 

A experimental gallery that encourages creative collaborations and a respect for diversity through inclusive, non-conventional exhibits and showcases. A small space with big mission, the Metro Micro Gallery offers exhibits and programs to strengthen and sustain our community.  

Barbara Januszkiewicz is the sponsor of Metro Micro Gallery. This is part of the outreach of her studio practice that includes mentorships within the creative community. Plus an effort in supporting public awareness for visual art practitioners. Pay it forward.

Metro Micro Gallery is located at 3409 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA. For more information visit www.metromicrogallery.com. 

Facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/919101374899674/

Bettie Page for a great cause!

Wanna bid on this gorgeous Bettie Page? - all for a good cause!

Details and bidding here.


#bettiepage #thenotoriousbettiepage

New Studios in the DMV

open may 5 and 6, 10-6 pm

and

spring art walk
Friday may 5, 6-8pm
MICHELINE KLAGSBRUN
raye leith
joe hall
the tuesday night group

1662 33rd street NW in georgetown
 

SPRING ART WALK:
Seven galleries will host an evening stroll and a viewing of their fine art

exhibitions in the most beautiful part of Washington, DC.

WWW.GEORGETOWNGALLERIES.COM

Wanna draw the figure?

Fridays, June 2 & 16 – Friday ARTnights: Drop-In Figure Drawing – The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) hosts a drop-in “Working from the Figure” session on Friday, June 2, 2017 and Friday, June 16, 2017 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. 

Call

Art Impact USA's 2017 Juried Art Exhibition at Pepco Edison Place Gallery is now ready to receive your art entry.  You are invited to submit up to eight works for "Climax: The Best of the Best."  There is no entry fee and over $850 in cash awards and prizes.  


Submission deadline is June 16, 2017, 9:00 pm firm.  Don't wait until the last minute.

The chief juror is Prof. Curlee Holton, Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center,  at the University of Maryland.  Fewer artists will be chosen and more of their work will be exhibited - four pieces.

Visit this page for all the details:  http://www.artimpactusa.org/climax-call. 

Victor Ekpuk solo at MFA

These Moments

A solo exhibition of mixed media artwork by VICTOR EKPUK

Friday, May 12th - May 29th, 2017

OPENING DAY RECEPTION

Friday, May 12th, 6pm-8pm

The artist will be in attendance. 

EXHIBITION LOCATION

Morton Fine Art (MFA)

1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts)

Washington, DC 20009

HOURS

Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm

Sunday 12pm-5pm

About VICTOR EKPUK & These Moments

What can one say about an artist like Victor Ekpuk? Graphically stunning, with a carefully crafted use of color, and evincing a commitment to the power of the line, Ekpuk's work in These Moments applies Ekpuk's enviable skill, theoretical grounding, and consistent engagement with what it means to be human in a more figurative approach. These Moments highlight thirteen works all grounded by the form, structure, and strength of the bold line's arc through space. Inspired in part by a four-month residency in Nigeria, the country of his birth, Ekpuk was struck by how central the head was in daily life in Lagos. Ekpuk explains that he was "struck by people carrying things on their heads, metaphorically or otherwise."
- Izetta Autumn Mobley, 2017

These Moments marks VICTOR EKPUK's third solo exhibition at Morton Fine Art.  His artwork is included in the permanent collections of the

Smithsonian Institution Nation Museum of African Art, Brooks Museum,

Krannert Art Museum, US Department of State, Newark Museum, Arkansas Art Center, Fidelity Investments,  The World Bank, and University of Maryland University College Art Collection.

Call for Proposals

One month left to submit your proposals for an exhibition at artspace in the first half of 2018

APPLY ONLINE

Entry Fee: $25
Deadline: June 1, 2017

Frida Kahlo Show... and?

Over 20 years ago, The Washington Post called me "A Kahlophile since age 17", and even after all these years, that description still fits me to a tee.


Subsequently, I was lucky enough to curate two (in partnership with the Mexican Cultural Institute for the first one, and with the same Institute and the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City for the second) worldwide "Homage to Frida Kahlo" shows - the first one at Georgetown's iconic Fraser Gallery, and the second one online with art.com.

Campello's works are more than one-liners, though. They're also explorations of one of Campello's pet topics: race. In Las Siete Fridas (The Seven Fridas), he's envisaged Kahlo as Nordic, Arab, African, punk, Native American, Vulcan, and Beatle. The drawing was inspired by the 1980 census, the first to offer a complex menu of ethnicities for each American's self-identification. "This was my way of poking fun at the census and our governmental need to put labels on people," Campello explains on a nearby card. Las Siete Fridas was recently acquired by Seeds of Peace, an organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding.   ---  Pamela Murray Winters, Washington City Paper

Over the years, as documented here, I've done hundreds, if not thousands of works inspired, related or obsessed by Frida Kahlo, the Champagne Communist, pain-ridden lead for the title of most famous and influential Latin American artist... ever. And soon, very soon, I will be announcing another major Kahlo-related project... stay tuned!


Just found out that a new Kahlo-inspired show is about to make its debut in the DMV:

Exhibit:

Frida en Nosotros

Artworks inspired by Frida Kahlo

May 5- May 29

DMV area artists pay tribute to Frida Khalo as a transcendent Latin American cultural icon. Each artist has taken her image or imagery related with her as a starting point to explore how she relates to their own ethnic traditions and customs. Featured artist are Marily Mojica, Osbel Susman-Peña, Nicole Oxendine, Ric Garcia, Marla Mclean, David Amoroso, Gus Rodriguez, Kate Heneghan, Jobi Jovanka Magana, Juliana Vallejo, Shyama Kuver, Cluadio Olivos, Eloy Areu, Sergio Olivos 

Reception:

Opening Night and Cinco de Mayo Celebration

Friday, May 5

5 pm-12 midnight

Happy Hour

Tapas, Vino y Margaritas

Location:

Cuba Cuba Galerie café

2309 18th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20009

An artistic culinary initiative in Adams Morgan, where art, music and Spanish food traditions fuse into a cultural experience. Patrons can enjoy art exhibits in the restaurants' basement gallery space and then pair the experience with a good glass of wine and a variety of  tapas or a dinner that samples Spanish and Cuban cuisine traditions.

Guerrilla Framing Techniques - Number One

Me: Custom framing is expensive!

You: Everybody knows that Lenster!

The average price for custom framing around the DMV is brutal - and sometimes complicated (or made complicated by frustrated designers posing as framers or artists who have seen too many Roccoco framing in museums.

Unless you're Frida Kahlo, generally speaking, the job of a frame for a work of visual art is first and foremost to protect the art.

Period.

And in the 21st century, and most of the 20th, the simpler the better; the less noticeable the frame, the more that the art is noticed.

If you have plenty of sheckels, then a good framer will do a great job. The best and least expensive framer around the DMV is Apex (703/914-1000, ask for Khalid and tell him Lenny sent you)

For the vast majority of artists, a frame should not cost as much as repairing your car's transmission.

You: Can you get to the technique part already?

Most artwork is done on geometric substrates; even if you cut paper or stretch your own canvas, most of the times it is either a square or a rectangle; ovals went out ages ago; in fact they were never really in... cough, cough.

In the USA, these art substrates come in standard sizes that apply not only to the substrates (paper, canvas, board, wood, etc.), but also to mats, frames, and glass.

Thus, if you work on a standard size substrate to start with, you're almost home, because then you can eliminate the middle man to getting your work on a wall: the custom framer.

An 8x10 substrate will fit into an 11x14 pre-cut mat and into an 11x14 pre-cut frame; and 11x14 substrate will fit into a 16x20, a 16x20 into a 20x24 and so on.

Around the DMV, both Ikea and AC Moore's have ridiculously affordable prices for acceptable, minimalist frames. With AC Moore's if you sign up for sales alerts, you'll be bombarded with coupons (the best one is their 25% off for your purchase - including sales items; otherwise you get their 55% off regular price coupon emailed to you every 30 seconds).  Practically every frame at Ikea is a minimalist frame, but be careful because many of them are European size standards, which are different from US; however, Ikea frames generally come with acid-buffered mats, with is a nice "bennie" to have.

By the way, if you need a lot of frames in the same size - let's say two dozen frames, then I suggest that you find the ready made frame that you like and that will accommodate your work (this usually works for photographers), turn it over and see who makes the frame and then contact the manufacturer (if it's in the USA) and see if they will sell you the frames directly. There's usually a minimum order to "qualify" for this option, and thus situations may vary according to your needs.

If you want to do artwork in other than standard sizes, then more power to you, and framing just got a little pricier, but there's also a technique.

First find a ready made frame that is bigger than your odd shaped artwork and visualize the artwork inside the frame. If the proportions are agreeable to you (let's say you have a rectangular work which can be matted with both sides and top the same and bottom "heavy" - that is perfectly acceptable.

Once you have the frame, go to a framer and have them cut you a mat that has the outside dimensions of your frame and have them cut a window that fits your work. Now you are only paying them to cut a custom mat, rather than paying them to do that as well as creating a custom frame and glass from scratch. It should reduce your costs by about 80%.

Then just bring your matted work home, pop it into the frame and as the Brits say: "Bob's your uncle."

Frida Kahlo at a steal!!!

C'mon blogosphere! You're making me look bad!


Anybody like Frida? This very cool painting that I did in art school and which sold originally almost 15 years ago, showed up at an auction house a while back and it is almost over and as of this morning it was available for around $120!


This painting sold for $1200 in the 1990s!


Follow the link! And bid already!

http://www.invaluable.com/catalog/searchLots.cfm…

Frida Kahlo: Picasso Style
Oil on Board, c. 1980
F. Lennox Campello

#fridakahlo #frida #picasso #pablopicasso #fridapainting #lennycampello #artauction

Found in a thrift shop

A Maud Lewis painting, discovered in a New Hamburg thrift store last month, has already set an auction record. 

Bidding has topped $125,208, the most for any original work by the Nova Scotia artist.

Read the story here.

Stolen art

“It is absurd that the University of Oklahoma would act as if they have done a noble thing by returning a piece of stolen art to France. From the moment that the University of Oklahoma discovered the painting was stolen, university administration, led by President David Boren, has fought tooth and nail to prevent this painting from returning to its rightful owner. In order to accommodate a wealthy donor, President Boren went as far as spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the art away from its rightful owner – a family that was nearly destroyed during one of the darkest periods of humanity,” said Rep. Mike Ritze.

Read the story here. 

Rockville openings

Artists and Makers Studios 2 Presents "anti-land" with Gregory Logan Dunn "Tulipmania" with Patty Hankins

Artists and Makers Studios 2 on Wilkins Avenue in Rockville will present one exhibit in the main galleries for the month of May.

 "anti-land" with artist Gregory Logan Dunn will be featured in the Main and Merge Galleries on the second floor. Work in this solo exhibit represents a new group of paintings that continue to pursue traditional themes in the artist’s work: opacity versus transparency, multiple layers of paint accumulating on the surface while leaving visible existing layers underneath, through holes and rips from the layers above. Mystery, introspection, transformation, absolution. This process is highly personal - it has been an experience Dunn creates, individual and bereft of social or political commentary. Apolitical no more. Negative charges are fired in opposition saturating the American mindscape with polarizing fallout that land like lit fuses in the landscape of the national consciousness. What is fired across the aisle falls out onto the land, and it poisons, burns. There is no harvest in anti-land. "Tulipmania" with Patty Hankins of the Montgomery County Camera Club will open in the Photographers’ Hall, along with exhibits in New Master’s Gallery, Gallery 209, and artists’ open studios to round out the evening.

"anti-land"
"Tulipmania" Opening Reception

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday, May 5th, 2017
Artists and Makers Studios 2
12276 Wilkins Avenue
Rockville, MD 20852

Additionally AM presents three exhibits in three galleries for the month of May at the Parklawn location in Rockville, just 9/10’s of a mile from the buildings on Wilkins. "Navigation/Immigration" with Alonzo Davis, "Waterborne" with Cindy Packard Richmond, and "This Ain’t Yo Mama’s Textiles" with Melanye Coleman, along with resident artists’ open studios.

These exhibits at both locations open Friday, May 5, and continue through Wednesday, May 25th, 2017. Viewing hours are 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Tuesday-Friday, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM Saturdays, and Sundays/Mondays by chance or appointment. 

Kahlo quote

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you."



― Frida Kahlo

Opportunities

Strategic Goal is to encourage young artists to pursue their own innovative approaches in global art perspective.


Awards will be given for the top 5 chosen winners in the Painting and Sculpture, Contemporary Media Art, and Architecture and Design. The finalists are provided with one round trip ticket and 3 nights' stay in the conference hotel in Vienna, Austria.


No Entry Fee


Details: http://gamma2017.weebly.com

Social Media Art Workshop

Art of Connecting

Thursday, April 27 | 7:00 until 9:00 pmFriday, April 28 | 10:00 until 11:30 am
MPA@ChainBridge, 1446 Chain Bridge Road, McLean

Please join MPA at MPA@ChainBridge for the Art of Connecting. Anne Marie Marenburg, an MPA ArtReach instructor and National Gallery of Art docent will guide parents on creating enriching and enjoyable experiences with art from preschool to high school and beyond. Ms. Marenburg will provide parents tools to facilitate meaningful connections between their children and art objects they encounter. Utilizing these tools will in turn help to deepen the bond between parent and child while strengthening core skills such as reading comprehension and critical thinking at any age.


An exhibition by J.T. Kirkland will be on view and his works will contribute to the discussion. 


RSVP Here

Call for Entries – The Wearable Hat Show with Steven Krensky

If you are a DMV area artist, gallerist, art dealer, college/university art faculty, museum director or curator, and do not know who Steven Krensly is, then you are woefully out of tune with the DMV art scene.

Krensky is easily one of the most visible faces at nearly every DC area art opening or event - not just because he's a good looking feller (which he is), but mostly because of his haberdashery... and also one of the DMV's premier art collectors.

To say that the Krenskiester stands out in a crowd is a gross under-estimattion.

Krensky is really plugged into the scene - he attends nearly every student/MFA art show around the region, and often discovers artists waaaay before most gallerists, curators, etc.

And as a result, he also has the planet's largest art collection focused (mostly) on DC area artists. And when I say large... I mean humongous collection: 100s and 100s of artists.

Anywhooooo.... Krensky, together with his wife Linda, also often dabbles in curating some exhibitions and he's got a really interesting call for artists for his next one:

Artists and Makers Studios is proud to host The Wearable Hat Show – with Steven Krensky at both A&M locations

This exhibit, curated by Steven Krensky and a mystery juror, will offer artists in the metro area an opportunity to make a statement through the art of the hat. Pick a hat form, any hat will do. Paint it, stitch it, weld it, glue it, glass it, bead it, weave it together with wire or string or any old thing. Your hat can be a reflection of your daily creative process, make a political statement, it can be whimsical, flattering, or funny. It must be functional, but need not be comfortable. Your hat must be for sale!

Artists whose work has been selected will be shown at both locations – the Reception Gallery at Parklawn, and in our Wilkins Avenue Merge Gallery for this month long exhibit. Hats will be pinned to the walls, or displayed on pedestals, at the gallerist’s discretion. Artists & Makers Studios will take a nominal 25% commission on sales from this exhibit. The artist should insure their own work for the duration of the exhibit if necessary.

Submission Requirements
****Submissions due on or before August 1st before 4pm, notification by August 9^th.

Accepted work must be delivered to/and picked up from the assigned gallery, no shipments of artwork will be accepted.

Delivery date deadline, Sept 5th – 10-4 (Parklawn or Wilkins in Rockville)
Opening, Sept 8th from 6-9pm
Show ends Sept. 27th
Pick-up of unsold work Sept. 28th, 29^th, 30th – 10-4

Artists may submit up to 5 jpegs of their work for consideration. The curator will choose works appropriate for public display from among all of the works submitted, and will include as many artists as possible. An artist may have one or more works accepted for exhibit. All work must be available for sale, and functional.

All entries must be submitted electronically in JPG format only. Email your images along with the completed form below to: judith@artistsandmakersstudios.com Please type Hat Show and your last name in the email subject line. For example: Hat Show/heartsong.

Images should be sized at no more than 1024 by 768 pixels, and less than 1 megabite in disk space size. Image file names must include artist’s last name and title of the piece in the following format: 

(ArtistLastName_ImageTitle.JPG) example: vanGogh_StarryNight.jpg

Click here to get a pdf of HAT Call for Entries 2017

Never bow down to art censorship

The University of Alaska at Anchorage is refusing to remove a professor’s graphic painting depicting a decapitated Donald Trump, saying it was important to protect even objectionable artistic expression. 

The painting shows a nude Captain America (as portrayed by liberal actor Chris Evans) standing on a pedestal and holding Donald Trump’s head by the hair. The head drips blood onto Hillary Clinton, who is reclining provocatively in a white pant suit, clinging to Captain America’s leg. Eagles scream into Captain America’s ear, and a dead bison lies at his feet.

Couch, cough.... read about it here.


See the image here - horrible technical skills by the way...

Wanna go to a closing reception tomorrow?

CLOSING RECEPTION - SATURDAY APRIL 22, 4-6pm
"THE RED DOT"
WORKS BY HARRIET LESSER

STUDIO GALLERY.    2108  R STREET NW.  WDC 20008

The end of the JPG?

Virtual reality has hit the mainstream seemingly overnight. 

The New York Times posts daily 360° videos and has a virtual reality app, 200,000 developers are registered with Oculus to create VR games, and the Hirshhorn created a VR version of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibition. These organizations, among others, are seeing the incredible potential of VR technology.  

Virtual reality offers two unique advantages. First, it can be used to experience a space—like a gallery—in an incredibly realistic manner without setting foot in it. Second, it offers entirely new experiences that no one has ever had before. Arts organizations are beginning to take advantage of the former, and artists are exploring the latter. 

While VR may not change the way galleries are run immediately, keeping an eye on the digital landscape will inform the future of your gallery’s programming. There are steps you can take now, investments both small and large, to prepare your gallery for what’s to come—and generate excitement about your program in the short term.

Read this fascinating (and important article) via Artsy here.  

Winners and Losers

A guest piece by Bill Roseberry 

WINNERS AND LOSERS

"... like any juried or selection process, there’s people who can be perceived as winners and people who can be perceived as losers."

So says the executive director of a prominent D.C. non-profit arts organization in a recent article in The Washington City Paper.

He's right. There simply aren't enough public-sponsored venues and exhibit halls for every artist who wants to be seen. And it would be a losing battle even if D.C. didn't have the number of federally-funded arts institutions it has, all competing for the share of attendance and visibility local arts non-profits might otherwise expect. The MD and VA suburbs are bursting - and as is the numbers of artists who now work and reside there - all wanting to take advantage of the city arts opportunities and limited arts funding.

(Funny it is how the topic of D.C. Statehood is nowhere to be heard among those speaking of DMV arts and culture. As if there simply isn't any relationship - or if any attempt to define the difference between those with state representation and those without is offensive or irrelevant in a discussion of art and arts funding?)

What to do...? Concede to the sports analogy of "winners and losers"? Why can't D.C. become like a major-league player in the arts? Why shouldn't D.C. attract wealthy arts patrons like the big-league owners, and class-A administrators and curators with competitive salaries and seasonal contracts? Not to mention that D.C. real-estate development would be nowhere without quality arts and entertainment. No, we mustn't disappoint the owners, the developers, the managers, the team ... or the fans.

So it's a good thing that there are so many artists and performers (makers and creatives) in and around D.C. It "raises the bar".

Whose bar?

Another question I keep returning to is, "Since when did the arts become a competitive endeavor and why?

Is the sole purpose of arts organizations to establish even more competitive arenas with more entrepreneurs and even greater stakes (and subsequently more "losers" than winners) in the pursuit of a more "refined" or "progressive" culture ...??

Awards, prizes, grants, exposure, sales are not what all artists want or need; but it is the only thing they've come to expect will ever be offered if only by some stroke of fortune or dogged placation that those who control the rewards of cultural labor might look upon them.

So despite what artists are being told they need and want, the last thing (...ask any artist) is to be informed that they are a "loser" and not among a select team of "winners". Not this time. But maybe next? Everyone receives his or her turn? Not likely.

What's the alternative?

(First it must be seen that there is a significant difference between visual and performing arts organizations, their audiences, as well as their function. There are a few similarities but I wish to focus on the visual arts as that is my area of knowledge and not attempt to draw too large a picture or create too many generalities).

Museums of contemporary art, arts institutions of contemporary culture, and arts organizations - that profess to support more community-centered arts and culture - but also serve for the promotion and marketing of contemporary global culture as an economic incentive. The differences between their vision to serve as education centers, as showcase venues for artists, and as arts advocates varies as much as those functions may be blurred or be said to overlap. As centers for arts education, organizations and institutions may be eligible to receive non-profit status and much needed tax deductible donations - even though the direct impact or supplement to school-based arts education is also be heavily abstracted - particularly where those centers for arts education are estranged geographically from the communities and neighborhoods they claim to serve.

The truth is that contemporary arts institutions and organizations are less educational than promotional in their programming - serving more as proxy venues for artist promotion and sales as well as training grounds for the careers of curators, administrators, consultants, assistants and the host of arts-professionals whose competitive salaries must paid from an ever-increasing requirement for funding. Managing gallery and performance spaces are also very costly, contributing to a large percentage of an organizations overhead expense (and volunteer time) while serving only a small percentage of artists and a limited range of cultural views.

However, from the artists point of view (and similarly like any unobstructed lawn with a goalpost and bleachers becomes a potential playing field for sports enthusiasts) any public building with bare walls and lights becomes a gallery, or a performance space and a potential sales and promotion venue... or more to the point, a source of revenue to be "managed".

As there is never enough space for all of the art and performance that is produced selective management becomes absolutely critical to its continued function as a viable space - choices must be made and curatorial standards and narratives must be devised to substantiate those choices - however dubious or artificial those choices, standards and narratives are to reality and relevant to the community in which they are displayed. Hence, "winners" and "losers"; those who are assisted in selling their work or their brand, and those who are left to fend for and support themselves.

But what if... arts organizations were NOT in the business of promotion, of giving support to some artists but not others? What if arts organizations supported ALL artists both equitably and more directly without preference to gender or race, style or substance? What if arts budgets went directly to the communities they represent to strengthen the cultural infrastructure, providing incentive for artists and cultural workers to remain within those communities, to thrive, and both preserve the native culture and provide for the unique cultural requirements of which the artists have an innate and natural relationship? What if arts organizations did not serve as a proxy for the commercial market as galleries and theatres to promote art and ticket sales or as a career platform for transient arts administrators, transient curators and transient non-artist professionals? What if arts organizations were not players in the cultural gentrification of communities but the glue that held those communities together to resist urban expansion and cultural homogeneity?

What would arts organizations do?

Perhaps the most effective, the most significant (and the least costly) thing arts organizations could do is to formally recognize the difference between art and artists; between culture and its potential for marketing. (Many of those who annually profess "support for the arts" could care less about the welfare of artists or community cultures. To them "the arts" are either a collector commodity or a refined source of entertainment that likewise must be codified, qualified.. to be entered into competition; to earn approval or disapproval through critical judgment.)

Rather, artists and culture share a living relationship, a symbiosis, by which one is not likely to survive without the other. For art to survive requires nothing more than a museum and those with the means to collect it. For artists and cultures to survive requires a great deal more imagination and committed effort.

"Art has no ‘dominion’ really – it just exists and sometimes in the unlikeliest places made by the unlikeliest people." (1)

Functionally speaking, arts organizations could raise money along with awareness to do little things that would actually help all artists thrive and by extension to build and secure a more vibrant, viable art community that the public would be proud to call their own and in a way that would set a newer, higher and directly productive standard for arts organizations everywhere.

How would they do this?

As an advocate for artists rights, affordable housing and studios, as advocates for fair practices, create job banks for artists, create emergency funding for artists and their immediate families when there is a serious medical need, fire, or job layoff, underwrite group insurance, to advocate for health safety in the arts workplace, as a representative for artists with the local government with regard to city planning and arts education in the public school system, in conjunction with other arts organizations to advocate for artists in federal arts legislation, as an advocate for elderly and handicapped artists, as an archive for local artist's documents such as with the Archives of American Art, as an historical library or repository of the Arts in D.C. or to assist artists with the compilation of their personal archives (2) ...

The truth is there are plenty of things that D.C. arts organizations could be that are fully inclusive that doesn't presume to select one group of artists or selection of any individual artist over another; that doesn't contribute to divisiveness, that doesn't require a curator or even a scheduled exhibition space; whose budget isn't merely self-preserving, and that doesn't presume that the only need artists have is greater exposure ("people die from exposure").

The idea that artists and the public must be educated to the latest trend in contemporary art or to the newest big-names in a list of this year's emerging artists - or that artists are somehow uniquely gifted or visionary in voicing the needs and issues of communities while remaining silent with respect to their own issues of livelihood - and that somehow manifests as a cultural service - is not only short-sighted, it's redundant and proven to be of little if any long-term effective value.

It's time to stop seeing arts organization as arenas. Art is not a competition. Artists are not players. Culture needs to be served, not sold; it is its own reward, and a city with its diverse neighborhoods and cultures deserves to be treated fairly, unequivocally, with equanimity to all - that art and art practice might the one human endeavor by which NO ONE LOSES. Ever

B.R

(1) https://blogcabinbyvic.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/ode-to-a-jackdaw-the-sequel/
(2) https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonDCAreaArtistsHistoricalRegistry

Wanna go to an opening tomorrow?

Thursday night from 7-9pm, one of the DMV's blue chip artists will be having a reception for his latest solo show. "With the Grain: Paintings by J.T. Kirkland" at the McLean Project for the Arts in McLean, VA. The exhibition will run until June 3 at their new/temporary location on Chain Bridge Rd.

Here's a blurb about the show:

This exhibition features multipart and shaped paintings on wood. Focusing on line, color, form and structure, J.T. Kirkland combines wood and paint into uniquely warm and abstract paintings in the minimalist vein.  Using grain of the wood as both guide and essential component, Kirkland incorporates and contrasts the organic nature of the material with the crisp intentionality of hard-edged blocks of color.

Linguini versus Spaghetti

MFA Thesis Exhibition Alternative Views

Q: What's one of the best places for both new collectors and experienced ones to "discover" new artists early on their careers?


A: Student art shows!

American University's MFA Thesis Exhibition Alternative Views Opens April 29, 2017

AU's Department of Art presents the work of their Masters of Fine Art Thesis candidates: Mills Brown, Aaron Eckstein, Yaroslav Koporulin, Sarah Norman, Sarah O'Donoghue, Jen Smith, and Zarina Zuparkhodjaeva. 

American University Department of Art presents the work of current first and second year Studio Art MFA candidates in a two-part exhibition. From April 1-April 19, MFA First year students present work completed during their first year, followed by the thesis presentation of MFA second year students from April 29-May 28. Collectively, these emerging artists represent study, experimentation, and reflection while also providing a window into each artist’s individual artistic practice.

Gallery Talk from 5-6 pm and Opening Reception from 6-8 pm in the museum on April 29.

While you're there, in the DMV's most beautiful museum space (with plenty of parking!) make sure that you see Frida Larios' Maya Alphabet of Modern Times (through May 28):

Maya Alphabet of Modern Times intends to re-codify a small part of the Maya mythic narrative, giving the artistic tradition new graphic form. In the Maya Alphabet of Modern Times typo-graphic works, Frida Larios, a native of El Salvador, has borrowed directly from the logo-graphic language of the ancestral Maya scribes, but speaking to and for the Indigenous Maya of today. Since finishing her master thesis in London in 2005, Larios has regenerated nearly 100 new designs that have been integrated into diverse media: books, works on paper, installations, sculptures, garments, jewels and toys. These new artifacts carry through the Pre-Columbian heritage to a contemporary audience of every age, thus intending that the Meso American script is preserved to see a new generation.

Also The Summerford Legacy:

Ben L. Summerford (1924-2015) taught at American University's Department of Art from 1951-1987. All of the artists in Summerford Legacy studied under Professor Summerford and took different aspects of his teaching to heart. Some stayed close to their artistic roots in AU's Department of Arts, and some used those roots to support far-flung but personal explorations. All of the artists exhibit the artistic integrity embodied by their teacher, and approach their art as an act of discovery. 

Free Parking: A salon-style conversation with former students of Ben L. Summerford.  April 27, 2017.  RSVP

Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association Welcomes Fifteen New Members

The Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association recently completed its Annual Membership Jury. From this process, fifteen new artists were selected as Associate Members. Congratulations to:  Ahmed Ansari, Veronica Barker-Barzel*, Ramon Camarillo, Cam Chapman, Dennis Crayon, Tsolmon Damba, Mary Beth Gaiarin, M. Alexander Gray*, Briana Hertzog, Yoon Sun Lim, Lizzy Lunday, Charlene Nield, Ciddi Sermin, Meg Talley, and Marine Weiss for being selected as the Torpedo Factory Artists Class of 2017.

The Annual Membership Jury process is conducted in two phases. The first phase evaluates the digital images submitted with each application. Steve Prince, Associate Professor and Artist in Residence at Allegheny College, served as the Phase I juror. In Phase II, artists are placed into one of two groups: two-dimensional or three-dimensional work. Artist work is then anonymously evaluated, both individually and collectively, by all three jurors for that group. There are no quotas or recommendations given to the jurors by the Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association.

For 2017, the jurors for two-dimensional jurors were: David Bellard, Creative Director, Social Marketing & Program Services at Rare Residency Program; Glen Kessler, Founder of The Compass Atelier; and Robert Yi, Director of George Washington University’s Corcoran Arts Continuing Education Program. The three-dimensional jurors were: Michael Janis, Co-director of Washington Glass School; Mary Cloonan, Professor of Ceramics, Adjunct, Towson University and Exhibitions Director at Baltimore Clayworks; and David Knopp, Towson Art Collective and Sculptors Inc.

The Newly Juried Artist exhibition is on display in Gallery 311 at the Torpedo Factory Art Center until April 30. There is a closing reception on April 30 from 3:00 pm - 5:00pm.

On a note of personal interest, waaay back in 1995 or 1996 I applied to this process and was soundly rejected! Another example of why artists need thick skins! Congrats to all the new members!

*Members of Printmakers Inc; a Torpedo Factory studio and workshop

Wanna be in an art show?

CALL FOR POSTCARDS / DEADLINE MAY 19TH

Wish You Were Here 16
A.I.R. Gallery's Annual Postcard Show

A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce its 16th annual postcard show, Wish You Were Here, which will take place in the entry gallery of our Plymouth Street location from May 25 - June 25, 2017. This inclusive event both raises valuable funds for A.I.R. programs and makes affordable artwork available to the public. Past Wish You Were Here exhibitions have included work by notable artists like Mary Beth Edelson, Dottie Attie, Mary Grigoriadis, and Barbara Zucker.

They invite artists from all over the world - female / male / cis / trans / gender nonconforming / neutral -  to participate by donating 1 postcard-sized work (4 x 6 inches) in any medium. Each original work is sold for $45 on a first come first serve basis and the buyer will take the work with them at the time of the sale. All proceeds go to benefit A.I.R. programming and are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

FREE ENTRY & ALL WORKS ACCEPTED!

For more information and to submit work for the annual postcard show, click here.

Deadline is May 19, 2017 at 6pm.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

Jacob Kainen, High Noon II, 1980, oil on linen, 24" x 30"

JACOB KAINEN
&
ROMARE BEARDEN

Romare Bearden, Woman and Egret, 1975, collage and acrylic on board, 11 3/4" x 16"

April 15 - June 10, 2017

Opening on April 15, 2017, 6:00pm - 8:00pm at Hemphill


HEMPHILL1515 14th St NW
Washington DC 20005
tel 202.234.5601hemphillfinearts.com

Wanna go to a Friday night Opening?

Amazon Lady in Red Chair by Marcie-Wolf-Hubbard

Traveling in Place

April 10 - May 5

Paintings by Marcie Wolf-Hubbard

The Den Coffeehouse & Wine Bar at Politics and Prose

5015 CONN AVE NW, WASH, DC 

Artist’s Reception: April 14 (7–9pm)