The curious case of the new Space Forms uniforms

I don't know which Einstein designed this uniform, but I’m pretty sure that camouflaged uniforms will not work in space... cough... cough...

Washingtonian on art galleries

"Why DC Needs Art Galleries" is the title of this excellent article in DMV area glossy Washingtonian. The article is by Ian Bourland, who is assistant professor of contemporary art history at Georgetown University and an art critic for a range of international publications.

The past year was a good one for DC’s contemporary-art-gallery scene. It saw the opening of three new spaces. Ryan Dattilo, an attorney and collector from New York, launched the pop-up De Novo Gallery in Union Market, while Todd Von Ammon, a well-known dealer who previously worked at New York’s Team Gallery, debuted Von Ammon Co. in Cady’s Alley. And in October, a collective of mid-career Washington artists opened a sprawling studio complex/exhibition space in Northeast DC, named Stable—which fits nicely with both the structure’s equine history and the group’s aim to provide a reliable node for creators.

Bourland does an excellent job of updating the current gallery around the District (not the DMV). He goes back a little too far in history (for my taste) to recount the halcyon days of the DC gallery scene:

Decades ago, before the economic turnaround transformed Washington, it seemed as though the city might be an emerging art capital. The Corcoran School of Art & Design was thriving, and DC boasted the hard-edged abstraction of the Washington Color School, anchored by now-canonical figures Morris Louis and Sam Gilliam.

I note this because... technically the zenith of the DMV gallery art scene (no pun intended with Zenith Gallery, which coincidentally represents my work) was more around the late 90s to mid 2000s, when the number of art galleries of all flavors: independently owned commercial art galleries (such as Conner, Fraser, eklektikos, Marsha Mateyka, Irvine, Davidson, Anton, Robert Brown, Heineman-Myers, Alex, Baumgartner, Alla Rogers, Veerhoff, Neptune, Aaron, Numark, G Fine Art, Hemphill, Addison-Ripley, Littleton, Parish, and others, as well as the highly survivable artists' cooperatives (Touchstone, Studio, Multiple Exposures, etc.), and the non-profits (MOCA, DC Arts Center, etc.), and all the university galleries plus all the embassy and embassy-associated galleries (Mexican Cultural Institute, Goethe, etc.).

Back in those closer to the present and true halcyon days of the DMV art scene, the number of galleries in the DMV art scene exploded, as galleries colonized areas such as Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Bethesda, Alexandria, etc. At one point there were eight galleries in Georgetown's Canal Square alone!

What happened? It's a well-known neighborhood revitalization model: when rents are cheap, galleries and restaurants and other small businesses move in. Then the neighborhood becomes a visit point for the illuminati, and soon the area's attractiveness begins to improve, as do real estate prices.  Within a couple of decades, the franchise stores begin to move in, and a decade later the galleries and small businesses are gone, unable to afford the new rent realities. Bourland is familiar with this model as he writes:

...this is the now-familiar story of gentrification as it has played out all over the country. Artists flock to areas with low rents—say, Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood or San Francisco’s Mission District—and spearhead a dramatic transformation. Starbucks and Citibank follow, along with rising costs that push artists and experimental spaces farther to the periphery.

What else happened and what is still happening (and I've been bitching about for decades)? The DMV media completely ignores and treats with immense apathy the DMV art scene. I used to complain in the 90s about the press coverage of the local art scene. Little did I realize back then that we were at that zenith in art coverage, when the WaPo had not only a weekly Galleries column which covered the DMV art galleries, but a separate column dedicated solely to area museums plus a weekly column (then written by Michael O'Sullivan) titled Arts Beat, which covered the DMV's art scene. Add to that the weekly gallery review by the Washington Times authored by Joanna Shaw-Eagle, and the Art in America or Art News coverage by Joe Shannon and others... And the multiple freebie neighborhood newspapers which regulalrly covered their area's art galleries: The Georgetowner, the various Gazette newspapers (owned then by the WaPo), Pitch Magazine, Dimensions magazine, etc.

WETA had Around Town on a weekly basis, and the then emerging local cable stations (MHZ TV for one) had regular visual art show coverage.

Bottom line: we were at that zenith as well.

Then the emergence of the art fair model provided the final kick in the balls to the brick and mortar galleries as they discovered that they could move more art, expose more artists to collectors, and even to museums via the good art fairs in one art fair than in ten years in the DMV.  A few, like Fraser and others, valiantly tried to do both for a few years, but eventually most of them closed their physical doors and went virtual all the way.

A shout out to Washingtonian for this article, and a repeat of a question that by my email count I've now asked (and sometimes received answers from apologetic editors) I've asked Washingtonian for decades: Why doesn't Washingtonian have an art review column in each issue?

And one last point: When you cross the street in many places in the DC "box" on the map, now you're either in MD or VA - that's why we call it the DMV (an acronym that I invented by the way)... when pieces are written about the city's art scene, by default it is about the DMV art scene and includes Bethesda, Alexandria, Rockville, Mt. Rainier, etc. In fact there are more artists' studios in Rockville or Alexandria or Mt. Rainier, than in all of DC!

By the way, I've asked those questions multiple times to all other DMV area monthly glossies... and there are a few.

Update: John Anderson has a great opinion here.

Dr. Heran Sereke-Brhan for Nominated for DCAAH Executive Director

Yesterday, at the regular monthly meeting of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH), members voted to nominate Dr. Heran Sereke-Brhan to be the next executive director for CAH.

"This is a historic moment for the Commission as we select our first executive director as an independent agency within the District of Columbia government," said Kay Kendall, Chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "The Commission appreciates the great work that Heran has done during her time as interim executive director. She understands the agency and the challenges of the position from an on the ground perspective, but more importantly, she sees the opportunities for success. Heran is positive in her forward-thinking and is always focused on working as a team to develop the artistic and cultural community, and serving the residents of the District of Columbia." 

Dr. Sereke-Brhan has served as the agency's Interim Executive Director since October 2019, and has been Senior Grants Officer for CAH since July 2017. Prior to joining CAH, she served as Deputy Director for the Mayor's Office on African Affairs. Over the past two decades, Interim Director Sereke-Brhan has worked at a number of cultural and educational institutions, including the Harn Museum at the University of Florida, Addis Ababa University, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. She holds a PhD in History with a minor in African Art History from Michigan State University.

CAH is the designated state arts agency for the District of Columbia, providing grants and other programs aimed at encouraging progress in the arts and humanities in Washington, DC. The executive director serves as the Commission's chief administrative officer, and is responsible for the daily management of the agency's operations and staff. Over 100 applications for the position were received by Polihire, the executive recruitment firm that assisted in the search. 

The nomination of CAH's executive director is subject to the advice and consent of the Council of the District of Columbia. Dr. Sereke-Brhan will serve as acting executive director until her appointment is confirmed by the DC Council. 

American University opening

Communicating Vessels: Ed Bisese, Elyse Harrison, Wayne Paige features recent artwork by three Washington, D.C.-area artists. Opening Reception: 6 to 9 p.m., Jan. 25. Free and open to all - at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center.

Harrison and Bisese’s work are acrylic paintings and Paige’s includes oil paintings and pen and ink drawings. While their work shows continuity with Surrealist ideas of the 1930s and 40s, it is also related to the Chicago Imagists of the 1960s and 70s and reflects the prevalence of surrealist imagery in contemporary visual art.

For Harrison, the paintings in this exhibition represent a departure from much of her previous work, both in style and content.  

While there will be three large paintings by Bisese from his ongoing series featuring the “Bunnyman” character, the exhibit will be a first exposition of a series of smaller, more abstract paintings with a bird-like creature personifying various characters. Paige continues working with his “celestial inkwell” in small drawings selected from different series that represent his signature “clothespin” figures in a strange and dangerous world.  

Closes March 15. 

Presented by the Alper Initiative for Washington Art and curated by Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D.  Free Parking: Communicating Vessels, 5:30 to 7 p.m., March 5. 

Curator Claudia Rousseau will join the three D.C.-based, Surrealist-inspired artists in conversation. 

Free and open to all; please RSVP to tinyurl.com/AlperTickets

Barbara Januszkiewicz’s newest works

On view through February 2020 at Kimpton Carlyle Hotel - The hotel is located at 1431 New Hampshire Avenue, Washington DC, 20009. From East City Art:

View Barbara Januszkiewicz’s newest stain works on unprimed canvas and paper. Described as DC’s own Washington Color School ambassador, Januszkiewicz has re-invigorated the color field technique of the early WSC artists, not only by channeling the veil paintings of Morris Louis, but in the soak/staining of her canvases much like that of Helen Frankenthaler.

In this exhibit we see Januszkiewicz produce zen-like brush strokes across large formats with thinned acrylics. Instead of the WSC traditional pouring paint, she creates and designs her own unique brushes to control her fans of color to create fields of pure color.

Read the whole review here. 

More Scottish skyscapes

I'm still looking for the friggin' 4th grade photos of Anderson... and now I found this! These are 1989-1992 watercolors that I did in Scotland when I lived there while stationed with the US Navy... I did tons of these as sky studies of the gorgeous Scottish skies...

See more of them here.

The return of the Capitol Hill Alphabet Animal Art Project

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW), in partnership with Eastern Market Main Street (EMMS), is excited to announce the next phase of the Capitol Hill Alphabet Animal Art Project, a community-based public art project featuring installed sculptures on selected street signs in the Southeast quadrant of DC. In 2014, 10 sculptures were successfully installed through a pilot partnership with the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT). Funded by a recent grant from the DC Community of the Arts and Humanities, the Alphabet Animal Art Project will work with DDOT to install 10 additional sculptures throughout Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6B to intentionally broaden the span of the Alphabet Animal “path.” The new animal sculptures will be unveiled on Thursday, April 16, 2020 during Eastern Market Main Street's Third Thursday celebration. 

“The Alphabet Animal Art Project is so special,” says Hannah Jacobson, Project Manager, “and all of the sculptures both already completed and in production tell a story: individually in conversation with their street corners, their artists, and their materials, and together as a collective pathway encouraging new ways of engaging with spaces that may feel familiar. We are thrilled to be able to add another 10 animals to our community.”

The Alphabet Animal Art Project was originally conceived by a father walking with his two children in Capitol Hill. As he walked past lettered street names, he pointed out, “K Street—K is for Kangaroo.” He brought the idea to the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and so the Alphabet Animals were born. 

As a continuation of the previous 2014 project, the Alphabet Animals will follow in the footsteps of their predecessors. CHAW has engaged with a roster of nearly all the original artists, including Beth Baldwin, Charles Bergen, Undine Brod, Susan J. Champeny, Breon Gilleran and Mary Frank in collaboration, Carolina Mayorga, Davide Prete, Evan Reed, and Maureen Smith.

Eastern Market Main Street preserves the historic corridor, supporting small businesses, and fostering a vibrant, neighborhood serving corridor through public and private space improvements, capacity-building resources, and community events and campaigns. 

Since 1972, the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) has provided arts education to thousands of children and adults in the Washington region, especially from the greater Capitol Hill area. Through classes, performances, and exhibitions in visual and performing arts, CHAW brings together diverse segments of the population to connect through the transformative power of creativity.  CHAW offers a tuition assistance program and flexible payment plans. CHAW is funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. CHAW is a featured charity in the 2014-2015 Catalogue for Philanthropy, mentioned as Best Venue to See on the Cheap in DCist’s 2014 Best Theater Venues in DC, the 2015 & 2016 winner for Best Arts Class in the Washington City Paper Readers’ Poll, 2014 & 2015 Hilly Award winner for Best Arts Organization/Venue, the winner of the 2017 Irene Pollin Community Engagement Award through the NSO and the recipient of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts Innovation and Management program.

Squid drawings

While looking for Anderson’s 4th grade photo, which I can’t seem to locate, I found these 40+ year-old sketches of daily liberty life in Naples, Italy... cough... cough... 

The inseparable twins: Johnson and Johnson, USS Saratoga port visit, Taranto, Italy, c. 1976

MM3 Castro ready for liberty, USS Saratoga (CV-60)

“The Gunny conducting Squid counseling outside the Texas bar in Naples”

New Exhibition Space in the DMV: The Corner at Whitman-Walker

There's a new, non-collecting cultural institution in the DMV: The Corner at Whitman-Walker in Washington, D.C. 

German curator Ruth Noack, the new executive director of The Corner, will curate these works in their first exhibition: We First Arrived which opens on Saturday, January 25, 2020 and runs until Saturday, March 28, 2020.

The artists include Julie Mehretu, Dan Graham, Jesse Presley Jones, Kay Rosen, Amy Sillman, Paul Pfeiffer, Molly Gochman, Boris Torres, POPE.L, Lisa Tan, Xaviera Simmons and others.

Maryland State Arts Council - professional webinar series

The Maryland State Arts Council presents its first ever professional webinar series! Their Winter 2020 series will begin January 13th, and they will host multiple webinars each week until the end of February. All webinars are one hour long and free to the public. There will be a Q and A session after each webinar. If you have any questions you would like to submit before attending a webinar, please send them to msac.commerce@maryland.gov. Registration is required for each session.

January 13th: Welcome to MSAC! 

An overview of the Maryland State Council including what we do, ways to get involved and where to find information.

 Led by MSAC Executive Director, Ken Skrzesz and Deputy Director Steven Skerritt-Davis. Register here.

January 15th: Maryland Traditions: What is the Folklife Network?

MSAC will fund three new regional folklife centers in 2021: one in Baltimore City, one in mid-Maryland (Carroll, Frederick, and Howard counties), and one on the Upper Eastern Shore (Caroline, Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Talbot counties). Organizations interested in learning how to become a regional folklife center should join this webinar to learn more about the Folklife Network, which funds activities supporting Maryland's living cultural traditions. 

Led by State Folklorist, Chad Buterbaugh. Register here.

January 16th: Public Art 101 for Organizations

For communities interested in developing public art, this webinar will guide administrators/project managers from visioning and planning, through the artist selection process, artwork design, fabrication and installation. We will also review the Public Art Across Maryland grant program and address specific application questions to ensure your organization is prepared to apply. This webinar is also informative for artists seeking to enter the public art field.

Led by MSAC Public Art Program Director, Liesel Fenner. Register here.

January 22nd: Folklife Opportunities for Independent Artists

MSAC supports folklife artists with direct grants, resources at regional folklife centers, professional development, and consultation. Independent artists working in folklife, or community-based living cultural traditions handed down by example or word of mouth, should join this webinar to learn more about opportunities through MSAC's folklife program, Maryland Traditions. 

Led by State Folklorist, Chad Buterbaugh. Register here.

January 28th: Understanding and Marketing Arts & Entertainment District Property Tax Incentives 

(for A&E District Managers)

Maryland’s A&E Districts legislation allows local jurisdictions to enact property tax credits, but implementing and marketing the credits can be tricky. Join MSAC staff and A&E District Managers Stuart Eisenberg (Gateway) and Jennifer Merritt (Crisfield) for an interactive discussion about creating, implementing, and marketing A&E District property tax credits. 

Led by MSAC Deputy Director Steven Skerritt-Davis. Register here.

February 6th: Smart Simple Tutorial

Smart Simple is MSAC's new grants platform. Learn how to navigate the platform and how to complete applications such as the Creativity Grants application and the Maryland Touring Grants application.

Led by MSAC Program Directors Emily Sollenberger and Laura Weiss. Register here.

February 10th: MSAC Grantwriting 101

Learn basic do's and don'ts in writing grant narratives for MSAC and what our panelists look for in describing yourself as an individual artist, teaching artist, and/or organization.

Led by MSAC Director of Grants and Professional Development, Dana Parsons. Register here.

February 21st: Equitable and Accessible Regranting for County Arts Agencies

Maryland’s 24 county arts agencies help extend the reach of MSAC, in part by distributing grant funds to local nonprofits and independent artists. This webinar will review strategies local arts agencies can employ to distribute grant funds equitably and to make grant processes accessible and transparent. 

Led by MSAC Director of Grants and Professional Development, Dana Parsons. Register here.

February 26th: Canva Tutorial

Learn how this free tool can help with your print & digital marketing. Walk through the basics on how to utilize this website to make flyers, social media posts, brochures, presentations and more. 

Led by MSAC Program Director, Emily Sollenberger and Marketing & Communications Manager, Amelia Rambissoon. Register here.

Child prodigy? Feh!

Mikail Akar doesn't flinch as the cameras click around him. Born in 2012, the German artistic prodigy has spent half his life in the limelight.

With his striped jumper, goofy grin and dreams of becoming a professional footballer, Akar seems just like any other seven-year-old boy.

Yet the Cologne-born youngster is actually an expressionist whizz kid who has taken the international art scene by storm.

Dubbed the "pre-school Picasso" by German media, Akar's paintings now sell for thousands of euros (dollars) to buyers from across the world.

Read the full article in Yahoo News here. 

This cycle of "child prodigies" seems to recycle itself ever few years... anyone remember child prodigy Alexandra Nechita from a few years ago?

To me this is the standard for dubbing someone a child prodigy in art - see the master here.

Call for local artists

Spotlight Art Series@Touchstone Gallery 2020
CALL FOR LOCAL ARTISTS
JURIED SOLO EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITY
Spotlight Solo Exhibition Dates: June 3 – 28, 2020
Juror: Adah Rose Bitterbaum, Owner and Director, Adah Rose Gallery

Deadline: Monday, February 3, 2020 11:59 PM Eastern Time
Entry fee: $45

Spotlight Art Series 2020 is an opportunity to have a solo exhibition at the Touchstone Gallery. A successful applicant will enjoy a front window 90 sq. ft. wall exhibition space in our street level gallery located in downtown Washington DC. If you don’t get selected for solo exhibition, you still get to exhibit one artwork, no larger than 12” in any dimension, in 2020 as part of Local Guest Artists Group show at a date to be specified.

For a full prospectus and to apply visit www.touchstonegallery.com/spotlight

Touchstone Gallery is an artist-owned gallery located at 901 New York Ave NW, Washington DC, close to several major national galleries. Since its founding in 1976, Touchstone has maintained a reputation for exhibiting contemporary work of high quality and innovation. Touchstone’s mission is to exhibit diverse contemporary visual art and to promote artistic talent in the DC region.

Scientists Have Solved One of History's Weirdest Leonardo da Vinci Mysteries

Scientists may have solved one of the great Leonardo da Vinci painting mysteries – why the glass orb in the Salvator Mundi painting (dated to around 1500 CE) shows no signs of the refraction and reflection of light that might be expected.

The answer, according to computer models run by a team from the University of California, Irvine, is that in the painting Jesus is holding a hollow rather than a solid orb, which would have appeared the way that da Vinci depicted it.

Details here. 

Cuban actress to play Monroe

Then this...

Collider reports that Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049, Knock Knock, War Dogs) is in early talks to star in the film, which could begin shooting as early as this summer. The Cuban actress would be taking over the role last attached to Jessica Chastain, then Naomi Watts before her.

On the anniversary of a hero's death

Five years ago my father died on this day... here's my eulogy from that date:

"Hoy se ha caido otro roble en la selva del amargo exilio" is how I always thought that my father's eulogy would begin once he died.

"Today another oak falls in the jungle of bitter exile," began the eulogy for the man whose bloodlines my children and I carry on.

Florencio Campello Alonso died today at age 90 in Miami, the heart of the bitter Cuban Diaspora. Like many Cubans of his generation, he was the son of European immigrants to Cuba. His Galician parents left the scraggy mountains of northern Spain's ancient Celtic kingdom and in the first decade of the 1900s migrated to the new nation of Cuba upon its liberation from Spain.

Galicians have always been uneasy subjects of the Spanish crown, stubbornly hanging on to their ancient Celtic traditions, to their own language and to their bagpipes, so it is no historical surprise that they left their mountain homelands en-masse and headed to the new tropical paradise of Cuba, free from the heavy hand of the Spanish monarchy.

And thus it was never a surprise to me that my father was both a fighter against heavy-handed rulers, a lover of freedom, and one who was never afraid to re-start a life for the better, even if it involved discarding the old. 

My father could have been one of the privileged few who currently rule  atop the food chain of Cuba's Workers' Paradise. But instead of accepting the benefits of oppression, this most valiant of men chose the harsh path of right over wrong.

And he paid for it dearly (he spent years in Concentration Camps), but when he died, his soul was clean.

In his youth, my dad worked the brutal hours of the son of an immigrant who was slowly building a small financial empire in eastern Cuba. My father was pulled from school as soon as he learned to read and write, and like his two other brothers and eight sisters, he was expected to work and contribute to building a familial empire.

And he did, as my mother relates the stories of my father's childhood in the fields of eastern Cuba, a blond creole in a land of jingoist natives... he trying to out-Cuban the "real Cubans"... how he organized a labor union of the exploited Haitians who worked almost as slaves at the Los Canos Sugar Mill, how he joined a group of bearded rebels in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra in the fight against a tyrant, how he ran for the leadership of the Sugar Workers' Union and beat the Communists to the post, and how he spent years in a Castro Concentration Camp, jailed for the crime of refusing to join the Party, because he believed in Democracy and not Communism. 

And because of that stubbornness, in the 1960s he was offered the bitter pill of exile, and this brave man decided to choose family... and left his birth place, and thus became another immigrant within two familial generations and brought his wife and child to another new land.

And it is to him that I owe the greatest gift that a father can give a son: the opportunity to grow in freedom in the greatest nation in the history of this planet.

It is because of my father's courage that I was raised in this country and not in a land bloodied by brutality and oppression.

It is because of my father's teachings that I was raised with the conviction that freedom is not free and never to be taken for granted; after all, he fought for freedom and then Castro, the man who inspired  the fight, ended up being a worse dictator, eventually destroying all notions of freedom for all of his people.

It is because of my father that I was taught that every citizen owes his  nation some form of service, and that's the main reason that I signed (at age 17) to serve in the US Navy.

It is because of my father that I despise anyone who hides behind the mask of victimism to excuse failures and shortcomings.

When our family arrived in New York in the 1960s, my father began to work in a factory three days after he landed at the airport; my mother (who came from a privileged Cuban family and had never worked a day in her life) found a job as a seamstress five days later. That pattern was repeated for decades as they worked their way in a new nation.

"We thought we'd be back within a few years," was the answer given to me when I once asked the question about leaving their birthplace. When that didn't materialize, they became fierce Americans in the "United States of Americans" sense... these were the "America None Better!" set of immigrants, and in my Dad's case, you better be ready to fight if you dissed the USA.

"Americans"!

Always a fighter he was... and always for the right reasons.

Cubans are archaic immigrants... we love this great nation because we  recognize its singular and unique greatness; perhaps it is because our forebears had the same chance at greatness and blew it.

And my Dad loved this nation even more than he once loved Cuba... perhaps it is the genetic disposition of the serial immigrant. After all, his father had left his own ancient Celtic lands and kin for a new land... which he learned to love dearly.

My father always wanted to make sure that I knew that I was an "Americano" and not another forced-on label.

"Labels," he'd say, "are just a way to separate people."

By labels he meant "Hispanic" or "Latino" or anything with a "-" between two ethnic words.

I also remember as a kid in New York, when he bought a huge Hi-Fi record player-color-TV console... that thing was huge. He bought it "lay-away" and he'd pay $10 a week to the store and him and I would walk all the way from our house on Sackman Street to the store on Pitkin Avenue to make the payments every Saturday - he never missed a single payment, and that taught me a lesson.

It was soon playing my Dad's favorite music, which oddly enough was Mexican music (Cuban music was a close second)... and he knew all the words to every charro song.

Guadalajara en un llano, Mejico en una laguna... 

Guadalajara en un llano, Mejico en una laguna...Me he de comer esa tuna 

Me he de comer esa tuna.... aunque me espine la mano.

That Jorge Negrete song... being shouted often on weekends at the top of his lungs from our apartment in a mostly Italian neighborhood in East New York in Brooklyn must have raised some eyebrows.

My dad and I watched Neil Armstrong land on the moon on that TV set... we also watched loads of Mets games... and in 1969 and 1972 went to Shea Stadium to see the Mets win in '69 and lose in '72. He really loved baseball and he really loved those Mets!

When I joined the Navy at age 17, my first duty station was USS SARATOGA, which at the time was stationed in Mayport in Florida, so my Dad decided to migrate south to Florida and moved to Miami... just to be close to me.

He and my mother spent the next 40 years in the same apartment while I was stationed all over the world.

When I visited him today in Miami, he looked good and freshly shaven... this is a good thing, as my father was a freak about hygiene... and that's a common "creole" trait.

The Hospice nurse almost teared up when I told her that my parents have been married for 60 years.

I looked at this old "gallego"... his skin as white as paper, his eyes as blue as the sky, and his head (once full of blond hair) as bald and shiny as the old Cuban sing song ("Mira la Luna, mira al Sol... mira la calva de ese.....") and I saw the generations of Neanderthals, Denisovans and Gallego Homo Sapiens that led to my bloodlines... the generations of fighters, of strugglers, and of tough guys who didn't take no for an answer and who made a better place for others. 

And I felt at peace and grateful.

And as my father died tonight, after an extubation,  all that I can think  to say to him is "Thank you for your courage... from me, and from my children... and soon from their children. You opened a whole new world for them."

I love you Dad... Un Abrazo Fuerte! Thank you for your gifts to me and my children and it is no coincidence that you died on El Dia de Los Reyes.

Photographs by Frank Van Riper at Waverly

WAVERLY STREET GALLERY

A TALE OF FOUR CITIES — New York, Paris, Venice and Washington

Photographs by Frank Van Riper

January 5 - February 8, 2020  

Opening Reception: Friday, January 10th, 6 - 9 pm
Artist’s Talk: Sunday, January 19th, 1 - 3 pm

Journalist and documentary photographer Frank Van Riper will present work spanning four great cities and more than five decades in this solo exhibition.

“In these photographs, I have tried to avoid visual clichés,” Van Riper said. “For me, a photo of any beautiful or dramatic place always is improved by the people who are in it.” The earliest photos are from Van Riper’s hometown of New York City, followed by images he made during extended visits to Paris in the 1980s. The New York-Paris work is featured in his new book of photographs and essays, Recovered Memory: New York and Paris 1960-1980 (Daylight Books). His Venice photos were made over six years beginning in 2000 during a documentary photography project with his wife, photographer and sculptor Judith Goodman, that ultimately produced their bestselling book Serenissima: Venice in Winter (Grafiche Vianello Libri).

Waverly Street Gallery
4600 East West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-951-9441

Open Wednesday-Sunday, 12-6 pm
Ample parking in the county lot next door: park free on the weekends.
The Bethesda Metro takes you almost to their door.

The Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant

The Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant is awarded annually to under-recognized American painters over the age of 45 who demonstrate financial need. The mission of this grant is to promote public awareness of and a commitment to American art and to encourage interest in artists who lack adequate recognition.

WHO: U.S. painters aged 45 years or older at the time of application. A need for financial support must be clear and demonstrated. Applications must be submitted by an individual working artist or collaborators in an artist group; organizations cannot apply.

FIELD: Painting. For the purposes of this grant, painting is considered the application of various wet media (oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, tempera, watercolor, egg tempera, casein) on paper, canvas, fabric, or wood. This excludes mixed media, encaustic, collage, pastels, digital paintings, prints, and work in graphite or drawings. The use of multiple paint mediums is allowed (i.e. mixing acrylics with oil paints).

AMOUNT: Awards include a cash grant, ranging from $5,000 to $35,000 and an exhibition at PAAM.

DEADLINE: April 1, 2020

Full grant information and the online application is available at www.paam.org/grant.

Wanna go to an artist talk on Sunday?

Artist Talk featuring Eve Stockton and Kyujin Lee

at McLean Project for the Arts

Sunday, January 12

2-4pm

Join MPA on Sunday, January 12 from 2-4pm as they kick off the New Year with an artist talk featuring Eve Stockton and Kyujin Lee. 

Ms. Stockton and Ms. Lee will discuss the thoughts and processes behind Eve Stockton: Origin Stories and Replay and Reshuffle: Paintings by Kyujin Lee, currently on display in MPA's Emerson and Atrium Galleries, respectively. 

This event is FREE and open to the public. 

RSVP now.

About Eve Stockton and Kyujin Lee

Known for large-scale woodcut prints, Stockton's works are inspired by a close observation of nature and an eclectic interest in science. Combining her prints and stone sculpture, she works to create an atmosphere that can subtly envelop the viewer. 

Combining the spontaneity of surrealist automatism with refined illustrative skill, Kyujin Lee draws on the world of fairy tale to compose paintings exploring dreams, identity and personal transformation. 

Origin Stories and Replay and Reshuffle run through February 29, 2020 at MPA@MCC.

“The Year of the Woman” in Maryland

Our great Governor Larry Hogan recently proclaimed 2020 as “The Year of the Woman” in Maryland, as the state prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. 

“Our state’s history has been shaped by extraordinary women leaders, and our administration remains committed to empowering and advocating for women in Maryland,” said Governor Hogan at the announcement, held at The Lightbox Studio in Annapolis. “I look forward to the many events taking place statewide to commemorate the Year of the Woman.”

Happy new decade

My son was born in 2009 - that means that he has now lived in three decades... sounds weird uh?

Let me start 2020 with some questions:

Dear artists who read this blog: this is the year to stop whining about lack of opportunities and do something! For art sake's! (Your art) - if you live in the DMV then come to one of my free seminars (thank you PG County) and revolutionize how you make sure that your artwork ends up in other people's walls! The next free seminar is April 18 - details here.

Dear Art League, Greater Reston Art Center, Rockville Art League, Fill-in-the-blank artists' group/league: I keep giving you hint after hint: When are you guys gonna reach out to me and ask: "Hey Lenster, how do we take this artist group to the next level in this new century?" (instead of still operating in the 20th century model). 

Dear DMV museum directors and curators (except for the Katzen): I've been asking this question since 1992: "When are you going to look at your own backyard for some museum shows for area artists?" Does anyone recall that last time that a DMV area art museum (other than the Katzen) had a full museum show for a DMV artist?

Dear art fair organizers: Thank you for trying to make an art fair work in the DMV - in the last decade the people who run Art Miami and the Superfine! people, as well as the (e)merge art fair stint, all tried to make a successful art fair around the DMV - after all, this area is the second highest concentration of wealth on the planet... and yet. But there are a few key things to try which no art fair organizer has ever tried.

"What about you Lenster?", you might be asking... "whatcha got goin' in 2020"?

For 2020 I'm planning to be doing the Art on Paper fair in NYC, then one of the two Affordable Art Fairs also in NYC, and then the Pulse Art Fair in Miami Beach during Art Basel week.  I've also got two major curatorial projects brewing - one will revisit the theme of Superheroes in art, and the second one (to open during January 2021 actually) will curate a three-gallery show on the 20th anniversary of my Survey of Washington Artists show that I organized in 2001 and which was one of the most popular shows of that year and one which marked a key point in my curatorial trajectory.

More on both of those later... meanwhile, have a great 2020!

Great artist opportunity

From Artists and Makers Studios:

If you would like to become an Artist Affiliate, annual membership (Jan-Dec calendar year) pay just $100 for membership that includes a listing on our site, and participation in our twice yearly open studio event, along with special notices and opportunities in a private Affiliate FB Group.  

Contact Judith for more details via this email

Wanna go to a gallery opening?

MK Gallery Presents: Suh Yongsun & Kathleen J Graves

'Midtown and Beyond'

From January 4 to February 4, 2020.

Opening Reception on Saturday, January 4, 4-6pm.

Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday: 12 pm-6 pm, Saturday & Sunday: by appointment

MK Gallery
1952 Gallows Rd. #202
Vienna, VA 22182
703-734-7777/ 571-215-3029