Dear artists: Go to an art fair!

Many times via this blog - the 11th highest ranked blog on the planet - I’ve discussed how the the founders and organizers of a European art fair called Art Basel (which of course, takes place in Basel, Switzerland), decided to try an American version of their successful European model and started an art fair in the Miami Beach Convention Center a couple of decades ago, and they called it Art Basel Miami Beach or ABMB for short.

And I’ve also told you how that one mega art fair spawned a few satellite art fairs in Miami at the same time and how by now there are over two dozen art fairs going on around the Greater Miami area each December, and art collectors, artists, gallerists, dealers, curators and all the symbionts of the art world descent on America’s coolest hot city in December and art rules the area.

I’ve also pointed out that if you are a visual artist in 2022 and are not aware of these events, and are not trying to get there (get your artwork there is what I mean), then something really big is missing from your artistic arsenal (unless you’re happy just painting or drawing or photographing or sculpting, etc. and could care less who sees and possibly acquires your work – if that’s the case, then skip the rest of this column and more power to you!).

But, if like some of us, the commodification of your artwork doesn’t bother you, and the fact that when you or your gallery sell one of your pieces, you feel honored and pleased that someone laid out their hard earned cash to simply add one of your creations to their home or collection, then Miami in December should be in your radar.

But how to get there? The fairs are mostly gallery-based – that means that galleries are invited or juried to exhibit; not usually individual artists --- more on that later – but there are some other ways to begin to crack the Miami art fair presence, and today I want to share some of my ideas.

Let’s start with gallery-based artists.

If you are already represented by a gallery, why not discuss Miami with them? The enormous expenses associated with the art fair scene are the main reason that most art galleries do not consider them. And this is a darn good reason, as most galleries are run by the skin of their teeth and the expense associated with doing an art fair are enormous and could wreck an entire financial plan in less than a week.

But, what does it hurt to bring it up to your gallerist? Who knows where that may lead?

I am still shocked at how many art dealers are not even aware of the potential financial and exposure rewards of doing an art fair.

Let me be clear: I don't want to hype this issue as a surefire path to moving artwork. But, this much I know… for roughly the same amount of money that a gallery spends on a full page ad in a national art magazine, you can get a small booth in some of the satellite fairs and the return on their investment has a lot more avenues than taking a chance with an ad.

Gathering information is the key thing… bring the subject up to your dealer, and if they want more info, have them email me… the best thing for art is more art.

How about if you are a cooperative gallery? Why not consider applying to one of the art fairs and spreading the cost of the booth amongst the exhibiting artists? A word of warning: the better fairs are juried and that means that someone gets always rejected. But the same key that allows cooperatives to survive for decades (spread the expenses) should and must be the key to give them a presence at the art fairs!

And many, many co-ops are routinely showing now at art fairs in Miami, NYC, LA, London, Madrid, etc. The fact that they are returning to the fairs means that they’re having a positive experience there.

The look and feel of the fairs is different as well. Many of them are booth fairs – that means that a white cube booth of plain white walls, ready to be drilled and hung with art, is the main model.

Fairs such as the original Art Basel Miami Beach, Volta, Scope, Art Miami, Untitled, etc. are on this model. There are also hotel fairs. These are fairs that essentially take place in a local hotel, where the room is often emptied out and turned into a temporary gallery by the out of town galleries. The best hotel art fair in the world, according to many, is the Aqua Art Fair, held at the Aqua Hotel in Miami Beach, and having participated in it many times in the past, add my name to the list of people who thinks that this is the best hotel art fair on the planet. And at Aqua I’ve seen cooperative galleries, and universities, and artists’ leagues, etc.

A little Googlin’ of Miami art fairs (or just art fairs in general) will reveal just how many fairs there are and where.

The key thought to leave you with: think art fairs and think Miami, New York, LA, Chicago... and think of a way to get there.

Continuum: Artists Teaching Artists

McLean Project for the Arts to Open Continuum: Artists Teaching Artists September 16, 2022

Opening Exhibition Reception set for September 22, 2022 at 7pm 

McLean Project for the Arts will open its fall 2022 exhibition, Continuum: Artists Teaching Artists, on September 16, 2022. An invitational exhibition highlighting work by artists who give significant time to teaching, mentoring, and community-building, while continuing to sustain and develop strong and innovative personal bodies of work, Continuum will run September 22 through November 10, 2022, with an Opening Exhibition Reception on September 22, 2022 from 7-9pm. RSVP here (https://tinyurl.com/continuumreception). 

"We are delighted to bring this group together as we celebrate sixty years of exhibitions at MPA,” said MPA Curator and Artistic Director Nancy Sausser. “Each individual featured is both an amazingly accomplished artist and a beloved educator. Continuum honors their important and continuing contributions to our vibrant arts community." 

Continuum includes the work of artists and educators from most of the area colleges and universities, including George Mason University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Northern Virginia Community College, the University of Maryland, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Also represented are some non-profit teaching institutes such as the Washington Glass School. All of the participants are as dedicated to their on-going artistic practice as they are to their students, and vice versa. 

Continuum featured artists include: David Carlson, Patrick Craig, Robert Devers, Kate Fitzpatrick, Helen Frederick, Janis Goodman, Rene Gower, Michael Janis, Maria Karametou, Steven Prince, John Ruppert, Foon Sham, Judy Southerland, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Stephanie Williams, Sue Wrbican, and Peter Winant.  

In addition to the September 22 Opening Exhibition Reception, an Artist Talk is planned for Thursday, October 13, 2022. Additional details to follow. 

The Atrium Gallery portion of Continuum will be available for viewing during McLean Community Center operating hours. The Emerson Gallery portion of the exhibit will be open for visitors Tuesdays through Fridays from 1-4pm and Saturdays from 10am – 3pm. Online exhibitions will also be available for viewing at a future date. 

The curious case of John Leguizamo, Fidel Castro, and Latino Horror Vacui in Hollywood

John Leguizamo, the talented Colombian-born actor who once erred about his own ancestry by claiming that he was Puerto Rican on his father's side (I wonder how his Colombian dad feels about that) and once even carried the charade as the Puerto Rican Day Parade Global Ambassador of the Arts, has an issue with the casting of the upcoming Indie film “Alina of Cuba.”

Specifically with the casting of actor James Franco to play the murderous Cuban dictator Fidel Castro Ruz. The not Puerto Rican actor writes in Instagram:

“How is Hollywood excluding us but stealing our narratives as well?” “No more appropriation Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up! Plus seriously difficult story to tell without aggrandizement which would b wrong!” “I don’t got a prob with Franco but he ain’t Latino!” 

The "boycott" was quickly joined in by such luminaries as Nicaraguan-American political strategist and commentator Ana Navarro, and the casting made fun of by Carolina A. Miranda, a really good and influential Wyoming-born Los Angeles Times art critic.

Have not heard of anyone of Cuban ancestry complaining... cough... cough...

Background:

Fidel Castro Ruz, known to many Cubans as "La Bestia de Biran", was born in 1926 out of wedlock in Biran, Cuba. He was the son of Ángel Castro y Argiz, an immigrant to Cuba from Galicia, the former ancient Celtic kingdom in the north of Spain, and Lina Ruz González, his Cuban-born maid who was the daughter of immigrants from Spain. 

That's Castro's father to the right and his mother to the left below.

Fun fact: A lot of Galicians left their rugged mountain villages in northern Spain and settled in Cuba in the early 1900s (including both my paternal grandparents). 

So many in fact, that Cubans routinely refer to all Spaniards, regardless of which region of Spain they come from (Andalucia, Castille, Catalonia, etc.) as "gallegos", which I suspect pisses off most non-Galician Spaniards.  

In my experience, Galicians are a very clannish people, have their own language, customs, etc. and in Cuba even their own community centers, separate from others. In Guantanamo, for example, there used to be a Centro Español and a separate Centro Gallego.

Fidel Castro as a child with his two of his four siblings

Back to the tempest of Franco being cast to play Castro in the film and not being of Latino ancestry, however widely and confusing that classification is.

Part of me understands that Leguizamo means well, but as often happens when one is too passionate about a debatable issue, he mixes apples mangoes and oranges when making this argument.  Passion is an unforgivable mistress - witness my own conversion when I complained about a Spaniard (Javier Bardem) being cast to play a Santiaguero (Desi Arnaz) - for all the non-Cubans who have jumped into this Franco boycott: A Santiaguero is someone from Santiago de Cuba, which is where Arnaz's family was from.

But distilled to the simplest fact:

• Latinos don't get enough roles in Hollywood films
• THEREFORE
• ALL, repeat, ALL roles where the subject is Latino, must be cast to a Latino/a actor
• HOWEVER
• Latino/a actors must also be eligible to be cast to play any and other roles regardless of the racial or ethnic background of the role

A great example of the last rule is the recent (and great) casting of Cuban-born actress Ana de Armas to play American icon Marilyn Monroe - as far as I know, neither Leguizamo, or Miranda, or Navarro bitched about that.

Are Leguizamo, Navarro, and Miranda hypocrites? Maybe, but I don't think so.  What I think they are, is a combination of passionate dogma plus misguided (maybe misfired) good intentions... the alleged Leguizamo trying to pass for a boricua episode bothers me -- sort of like when H.G. Carrillo spent years passing as a Cuban.

Here are better Campello rules to achieve the same goal:

• Latinos don't get enough roles in Hollywood films
• THEREFORE
• Hollywood casting must be sensitive that Latino/a actors come from every racial and ethnic background and must be eligible to be cast to play any and all roles regardless of the racial or ethnic background of the role AND should make an effort to increase Latino/a casting.
• HOWEVER
• The casting should go to the best actor for the role.

In this particular case, some points which destroy the Leguizamo effect:

• Alina Fernandez Revuelta, Castro's illegitimate daughter and the subject of the film endorses and likes the casting of Franco to play her father - technically that should be the end of the fucking argument!
• She is also proud that “the project is almost entirely Latino, both in front and behind the camera.” The clueless boycotters should be applauding this film!
• I am shocked as to how much Franco looks like Castro! The only other man who looks more like Castro on this planet is Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau! Cough... cough...

Almost done... now for my own complaining: 

I am having a hard time swallowing an Argentinean actress (Mia Maestro) playing a Cuban woman (she plays Naty Revuelta Clews - Alina's mom - that's Naty to the left).

And Ana Villafañe (she plays Alina): I'm keeping my eye on you! You're only half Cuban! Cough... cough...

Campello out.

Toxic seeds

I hope that the future can handle the seeds planted by the Justice Department in Mar-a-Lago today.

Paid opportunity for artists: revising the Independent Artist Award program

Paid opportunity for artists: revising the Independent Artist Award program.

Deadline: Friday, November 11, 2022

This fall, MSAC is facilitating a public-led revision of the Independent Artist Award (IAA) program, which has recognized achievement by Maryland artists making work independent of institutions or organizations. This revision effort is based on data collected since 2020 from applicants, panelists, and award winners, who have made suggestions on how to improve the IAA program’s service to the public. The next step of this process is to identify a panel of editors who will work with MSAC staff to further refine the suggestions into clear policy recommendations, which will be carefully considered as MSAC further develops the IAA program.

Consider completing an application to serve as an editor in this process. All selected editors will be expected to:

• Become familiar with previously collected data and current MSAC efforts to support artists through the IAA program.
• Work with MSAC staff to consider how to improve the service of the IAA program to Maryland artists in light of other MSAC opportunities, including the Grants for Artists program, set to pilot in winter 2023.
• Participate in at least two virtual meetings discussing the above issues and developing procedure and policy recommendations for further consideration by MSAC staff, council, and Department of Commerce leadership.

What they are looking for:

Maryland artists with backgrounds in a variety of disciplines (e.g., literary, performing, visual, media, and traditional arts, etc.), or who are interested in learning how changes are considered and implemented within MSAC.

IAA winners, applicants, and panelists from the past three years are strongly encouraged to apply.

How to apply:

Click here to log in or create a free account in SmartSimple. You must be registered as an “Independent Artist” to apply to be an editor. 

Under Funding Opportunities, select "Public Call."

Select "Program Editor" from the first drop down option. 

Select “Independent Artist Awards” as the Grant Program from the second drop down option.

Click "Save Draft" at the bottom to populate the application.

Complete the application and click “Submit.”

Editors will receive a minimum of $400 upon completion of assigned tasks, with the possibility of additional compensation if more than two virtual meetings are needed.

This morning: Art Clinic Online

On Saturday, August 6, 10:30 - 11:30am, the ACO hosts DC Digital Printer, Ric Garcia

Art Clinic Online

ZOOM Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84149389951?pwd=QkNqUU1ZMFJ5SXpSU1dFOVFTeXZZZz09

I'm  happy to announce that today's Art Clinic Online meeting is with artist Ric Garcia. 

Ric is a painter and digital printmaker with work that builds on the tradition of pop art and is infused with references to various cultures in America. These references are "a meditation about identity rather than a cultural primer." Ric’s perennial favorite is Latino culture and its consumer branded products.  

Art Clinic Online: Ric Garcia

On Saturday, August 6, 10:30 - 11:30am, the ACO hosts DC Digital Printer, Ric Garcia

Art Clinic Online

ZOOM Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84149389951?pwd=QkNqUU1ZMFJ5SXpSU1dFOVFTeXZZZz09

I'm  happy to announce that the next Art Clinic Online meeting is August 6 with artist Ric Garcia. 

Ric is a painter and digital printmaker with work that builds on the tradition of pop art and is infused with references to various cultures in America. These references are "a meditation about identity rather than a cultural primer." Ric’s perennial favorite is Latino culture and its consumer branded products.  

On Saturday, August 6th, 2022, we will welcome Ric Garcia, a well known artist whose work you may have seen in the past, either at the Stone Tower Gallery, and Popcorn gallery, among other locations. Some of his work can also be seen on his website at http://ricgarciastudio.com/ He will tell us about his process of making art and about his career and what inspires him. And there will be time for Q & A so it should be fun! Join us!

A little more about Ric here.

Ric Garcia works and exhibits in the DC metro area. He is a painter and digital printmaker. His work builds on the traditions of pop art and is infused with references to various cultures in America. These references are a meditation about identity rather than a cultural primer. Garcia’s perennial favorite is Latino culture and its consumer branded products.

Garcia thinks of his depictions of these everyday products as still lives, commenting that “ultimately the work is less about representing the product and more about eliciting emotional reactions, introspective questions and celebrating Latino culture.” The cans and packages in his work are based on real products, but the slogans and illustrations on the labels are re-imagined in ways that express and comment on his bi-cultural experiences as a Cuban-American.

His art and work process has been featured in online articles at Artists & Makers Studios and East City Arts. Garcia’s art is in many private and public collections. Most recently his work has been added to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank collection and the Arts and Cultural Heritage Division of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Prince George’s County, Maryland collection

We look forward to hosting everyone on August 6th and beyond! We have a nice line up of upcoming interviews and topic discussions in the next ACO meetings this month and next. After Ric, Jordan and I will conduct a discussion on papers and substrates for drawing with all kinds of tools. More information on this to come. 

And if you can, don’t forget that the ACO needs your help with donations (small or big ones are all welcome, any amount you can spare) so we can pay a small honorarium to professionals whom we invite for interviews and/or demonstrations. Many thanks in advance for your kindness and generosity!

On Saturday, August 6th, at 10:30am

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84149389951?pwd=QkNqUU1ZMFJ5SXpSU1dFOVFTeXZZZz09

Cuban Food?

 

Alberto Gaitán

I am sad to pass that my good friend Alberto Gaitán has moved on... here he is with Victoria F. Gaitán at the book party for my 2011 book hosted by Leigh Conner at her iconic gallery. 

Photo by the talented Rebecca D'Angelo.

 Alberto leaves a gigantic artistic footprint behind... more later.

When Che Guevara almost got me whooped!

Read this cool 2011 piece by Maura Judkis on how an irate Cuban once threatened to kick my butt in Miami during Art Basel week - by the way, that piece is now in the permanent collection of the University of Oregon!

Read it here.

Teresa Jade Jarzynski at Artists & Makers Studios

Artists & Makers Studios welcomes Teresa Jarzynski back for her solo “Strange & Beautiful” with Resident Artist exhibit “Real or Imaginary”, and the talented Member Artists of Gallery 209.

Artists & Makers Studios on Parklawn Drive in Rockville hosts the work of Teresa Jarzynski in her latest solo exhibit “Strange and Beautiful”, the Resident Artists’ “Real or Imaginary” exhibit - along with new work in Gallery 209 and building-wide Open Studios. The August 6th opening will run from 11am – 3pm. Fantasy, skewed perspective and other elements of imagination interweave with impressionistic applications of recognizable subjects. Some more strange, some more beautiful, but every piece contains a bit of both for the viewer to take in. By focusing on flowers, inanimate objects, and people from various encounters in life, Teresa challenged herself to transform the ordinary into something more extraordinary. Although each painting initially stems from direct observation, the act of painting turns each reality into an imagined place, no longer restricted by traditional ideas. The Resident Artists will fill the beautiful Gallery Hall with “Real or Imaginary”, and the Artists of Gallery 209 will feature new work in the large Gallery and adjoining halls for visitors to discover.

Opening Reception

11:00 AM – 3:00 PM, Saturday, August 6th, 2022

“Strange and Beautiful” Artist Talk, 1:00 PM, August 20th, 2022

Artists & Makers Studios

11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 210

Rockville, MD 20852

Exhibits will run from August 3rd through August 24th. Viewing hours are 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, Monday-Saturday, and Sundays by chance or appointment. Masks firmly covering nose and mouth are required in the building.

Printmakers

 Printmakers -- true hardcore printmakers, not the kind that takes their drawing or watercolor to a digital wizard and says "Hey buddy, give me a 1000 of these in a poster size." But the kind that likes the smell of acid as it burns and etches their metal sheets; the ones that roll thick black ink onto etched plates, and lose track of where the cheesecloth is, and the ones that really know what a "ghost print" is - that kind of printmaker represent some of the least appreciated artists in any genre of the visual arts today.

The word "print" has been kidnapped by marketers and watercolorists and photographers and every kind of visual artist on the planet wanting to sell more than one of their original. 

But remember this: anything that is in a media that is different from the original piece is a reproduction - not a print. A true print is something created by an artist from beginning to end: a woodcut, a linocut, a lithograph, an intaglio etching, etc.!

One of the best places in the nation to find great real artists' prints is here in the Washington area DMV at the aptly named Washington Printmakers Gallery. 

A 20 year old idea which is still hot!

Twenty years ago I proposed the below idea to kindle our Greater region's visual art scene -- the Universities have (so far) all ignored the idea (P.S. - note the quaint use of "slides" :-):

Merry Xmas!

As promised, the first one of ten steps (in no particular order or ranking) to kindle the District/Maryland/Virginia (DMV) art "buzz" into a roar:

Number 10

The Universities

There are several important, major universities in and around the DMV area. In most cases each is working, as most universities do, their own, individual visual arts exhibition program, which is normally mix of exhibitions by their students, faculty and invited artists.

Almost without exception there is very little coordination between the different venues, which in some cases boast some of the nicest exhibition spaces in town. This is not unusual, as I imagine that in most cities this is also the same case, as the focus of the university gallery is in fact the university.

And here is where we can make a major change, and use the extraordinary resources afforded to our area by these venues, and their academic standing, to help Washington expand its worldwide visual art standing.

What we need to happen is for one of the local university art school chairs, or college deans, or even university gallery directors, to take the initiative to start coordinating a joint effort to create one annual combined, joint exhibition that synchronizes a focused exhibition that is spread throughout the Greater Washington area.

Imagine a national survey of art, with a good title and perhaps even a good, donated chunk of money as a prize. Say we call it “The Capital Art Prize” (OK, OK we’ll have to work on the title) and because good ideas sometimes attract funding, maybe we can convince a major local company like Lockheed Martin or AOL or Booze Allen and Hamilton, or (be still my beating heart), The Washington Post, to help fund it on an annual basis.

This synchronized event can be modeled somewhat on what the Whitney does, but better. The Whitney Biennial’s Achilles heel is its over-reliance on hired curators. Unless an artist lives and works in NYC, LA or SF or is already in the local radar of one of the curators for that particular year, chances are slim to none that the artist will come to the attention of those Biennial curators. Hence great art and potentially great artists may be ignored.

In addition to the use of invited curators, also imagine that this event puts forth a national call for artists, independent and museum curators, schools, art organizations and galleries to submit works for consideration. Send us your slides, CD ROMS and photographs (and a self addressed, stamped envelope for their return).

Anyone can submit and in a fair selection process, since art is truly in the eyes (and agenda) of the beholder, anyone can be selected to exhibit. A truly American concept for a national American art survey that will leave the Whitney and other continental Biennials in the dust.

And because the exhibition venues are spread around the capital area region, in galleries at Georgetown, George Mason, George Washington, American, Catholic, Howard, University of Maryland, Montgomery Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, and the many others I am sure to be forgetting momentarily, we could put up one of the largest, most diverse, and influential American art surveys in the nation.

This will take a lot of work to set up initially, as one key university person needs to take the lead and emerge from the pack of largely unknown, anonymous group of academics currently running our area’s university art programs. On the other hand, this could be an exhibition that can and will put names and faces on the international art world map, much like the Whitney Biennial sometimes elevates its curators a notch above the rest

Some universities will resist, as the easiest thing to do is to do things as they have always been done, and not really create “new” work. But given that a strong leader among our academic community emerges and takes the lead for this idea, then even if we start with a set of four or five venues, in a joint, coordinated effort, others will follow.

This will not be an easy job to do, and as it grows, so will the burocracy around it. But starting it up will be the hardest part, and as momentum grows, things will become easier. Whoever, if anyone, takes this idea and runs with it, will face many huge obstacles and many negative people. He or she will need to convince other university/college gallery directors to participate. They in turn, will have to convince their superiors, who will, in turn have to approve (and perhaps help kick-start the funding) the joint project.

This leader will also have to coordinate the approach to get a local giant to fund this effort, but I suspect that once he has aligned a few colleges and universities, this may become easier (it’s never easy) as the “buzz” and need for the event develops.

This is all a lot of work, and initially, until a burocracy is established around the annual event, many, many volunteers will be needed. I hope that some of these can be drawn from the school’s student body, alumni who are artists, and other local artists, much like Art-O-Matic draws from the collective muscle of our area’s significant artist population.

Our area universities and colleges already have significant media resources at their disposal, to help spread the word. They run school newspapers, radio stations, etc. and also provide a constant flow of new blood to our major mainstream media.

The goal (or perhaps “the dream”) would be a national level survey of art, which may look, review and/or jury the work of maybe 50,000 artists around the nation, and select perhaps 100 each year, showcase their work around a dozen academic galleries, and award a $100,000 cash award as the Capital Art Prize, plus various other awards (Emerging Artist, Young Artist, etc.). Art of a nature and scale that will attract visitors to the university galleries, attention to our area, piss some people off, excite others, create interest, discussion and buzz around Washington and our art scene.

There’s nothing more empowering than an idea whose time has come.

A guerrilla technique for saving money on framing costs

First and foremost: Prepare! Do not leave your framing to the very last minute. Having said that, I know that most of you will leave the framing to the last minute and, then panic, as this is part of the average artist DNA. You will then go to your neighborhood framing shop, and drop way too much money to get custom frames made for your artwork. If you can afford it, and the price history of you artwork can sustain it – then skip this article. But if you want to save a lot of money on framing, then prepare

Read the whole article here.

The Paint the Town Labor Day Show

I will be the judge for this year’s "Paint the Town" Labor Day Show sponsored by the Montgomery Art Association

The Paint the Town Labor Day Show is one of the region’s largest and longest-running art shows composed of all local artists. The show will be open to the public Saturday-Monday, September 3-5, and I will do both the closed-door judging and then and on Saturday, September 3, I will also judge the plein air competition and then present the awards. 

About the Plein Air Competition: As you walk around Kensington on the Saturday of the show weekend, you'll see dozens of artists painting and drawing all over town. Those are participants of the annual Plein Air Competition. From 7 am-3 pm, adults and children complete paintings with a Kensington theme and submit them for prizes awarded by me. The competition is open to all adults and children. Free for children under 18 and current MAA members; adults pay $10 per person. Registration opens July 15.

Details here.

Schedule 

FRIDAY, JULY 15: Call for entries opens (members only)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3: Exhibit floor open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and Plein air art competition, 7 a.m.-3 p.m. -- Awards ceremony, 6-8 p.m.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4: Exhibit floor open, 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5: Exhibit floor open, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Pick up purchased artwork, 5:00-8:00 p.m.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6: Pick up purchased artwork, 9-11 a.m. 

Montgomery Art Association’s annual Paint the Town Labor Day Show

I am honored to serve as 2022 judge of one of the region’s largest and longest-running art shows over Labor Day Weekend: the Montgomery Art Association’s annual Paint the Town Labor Day Show at the Historic Armory in Kensington, Maryland

I will review more than 500 works in seven categories at the Montgomery Art Association’s annual Paint the Town Labor Day Show at the Historic Armory in Kensington, Maryland. I also will judge the one-day Kensington plein air painting competition and will present prizes at the September 3 reception.

The annual art show runs for three days—September 3-5—and features hundreds of pieces of artwork by member artists. Original paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photography—plus prints and notecards—will all be for sale. A portion of proceeds goes in support of MAA’s educational mission.

The show is accepting entries from artists 18 years or older in Maryland, Virginia, and DC. MAA annual membership is required to participate. In addition to the main show, MAA will host its annual plein air competition. Members, plus adults and children from the community, are invited to participate and have up to eight hours to complete a work within the boundaries of Kensington. Free for children and members, and $10 for non-member adults.

About MAA: The Montgomery Art Association (MAA) is a Maryland-based nonprofit membership group supporting the visual arts and artists in the DC area. A portion of sales goes to support our educational mission, including providing scholarships to art students. Learn more.

About the Show: The annual three-day Paint the Town Labor Day Show will take place at the Kensington Historic Armory, 3710 Mitchell St., Kensington, MD, September 3-5. The event is free and open to the public. The Town of Kensington is a proud sponsor.

Register here.

The Coronavirulization of the art world

Covidian? …Covidism? …Covidnineteenism?…Coronaism?

A couple of months ago I wrote about some help lines for artists as the Coronavirulization of the art world, another victim of the planetary infection in what I now call The Covidian Age, was in full attack...

... Leave it to artists to actually do something positive not only with these two political interpretations of a disease, but also with a myriad of interpretations of the Covidian Age and Covidism – and I suspect that a millennia from now, when perhaps even more dark events have been survived by the human race, it is the First Covidian Age artwork which will truly tell the story and mark the crowning spot (pun intended) of the Coronavirulization of art.

Read the whole article here.

What shows up on Ebay

 

Skies above the Montrose Links, Scotland
1990 Watercolor on paper by F. Lennox Campello

This 1990 watercolor - done while I lived in Scotland is currently up on Ebay for a steal! See it here

When you get grease on paper

Master iguana-eaters perfect their eating craft while carrying one of those giant buckets of popcorn (at the movies) in one hand, and a giant soft drink in the other. No one can resist waiting to be seated to start on the popcorn, and so many of us iguana the popcorn enroute to our seat… the head dips, the mouth opens and popcorn is iguana into the gullet.

As a master iguana-style-eater, I decided to grab another piece of steak, and then head upstairs for the utensils…. my head dipped down into the plate… black charcoaly hands spread out for balance.

I iguana’d the steak bite, raised my neck, and a smaller piece of meat, which had been barely attached to the larger piece in my mouth, went flying… and landed squarely on the middle of the drawing.

Read the whole 2017 article here.

My picks for the current Art League show

An easy way to spend most of a summer rainy afternoon (and there are plenty of hem coming!) is a visit to the Torpedo Factory, host to many art studios and some key galleries. While you’re there, go check out the current Open Exhibit, juried by artist Jessie Boyland.

If you’re a constant reader of this blog, then you know what comes next: The Campello awards!

Are you ready for a shock? I believe that for the first time since I’ve been messing around with re-jurying other jurors’ shows and awards (first time was around 1981), this is the FIRST time that I’ve agreed with the Best of Show!

Wendy Donahoe’s “Traveler”, a spectacular charcoal and carbon pencil drawing, is not only a superbly crafted technical masterpiece, but also a work that does something that a master like Donahoe does so simply: in this case capture the psychologic presence of the subject.  She nails it and do not be fooled by the simplicity of my words in describing her accomplishment with this piece. These are finely tuned and trained artistic muscles which Donahoe flexes so easily in this work and which are in reality impossibly difficult to deliver.

I also quite liked some of the Honorable Mentions, especially “Transposition” by Susan O'Neill, an elegant figure study employing charcoal, red chalk, and mixed media on paper.

Personally I would have given an award to “Art Lovers 1 - Picasso - Le Gourmet 0” by Leni Gurin, a very elegant Acrylic and a take off on the great Spanish master.  That painting is the steal of the show! At 14 × 78 × 11 inches, the cool painting by Leni Gurin is a steal at $900! Go buy it!

Traveler by Wendy Donahoe

Transposition by Susan O'Neill

"Art Lovers 1 - Picasso - Le Gourmet 0" by Leni Gurin

I keep giving this advice out...

This month this column is just going to re-address some thoughts about our DMV area non-profits – an idea which I’ve been venting on about for years

The Art League in Alexandria is not only one of our area’s largest artists’ organization, with over 1,200 members, but also a jewel in our area’s art presence. The Art League also operates a school with over 2500 students per term and a supply store for the purchase of art supplies by students and members.

Read what my idea is here.

Death on Tik Tok

The arrival of Death will be on Tik Tok
2022 watercolor by Florencio Lennox Campello

 

Arlington Art Center to become a museum

The Arlington Arts Center will reopen on 1 October as the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington!

Cool or what?

Lucky find

A few years ago I told you how I sneak artwork in Thrift shops... perfect way to dispose of frames which have seen better days. etc.

Anyway... recently I placed some art school vintage works in a very large area Thrift store, and even before I had left the store, I noticed that the below sharp-eyed collector had already snatched two of the four pieces that I had placed in the shelves!!!

She left behind this etching of Che Guevara behind... maybe not a big fan of the Argentine mass murderer.

The mass murderer Ernesto Che Guevara
1978 litho by Florencio Lennox Campello

On the subject of photographers

You can put money on this: a thousand years from now, there will still be photographers who still use the techniques of that profession that were invented at the beginning of photography itself. There is something so attractive to the masters of the darkroom about photographic processes such as handmade prints from glass negatives, and other 19th century processes such as Platinum Palladium, Cyanotype, Oil, Carbon, Gum Bichromate, VanDyke Brown, Salted Prints, Tintypes, and Ambrotypes.

Virginia’s Sally Mann, not only one of the planet’s top photographers, but also someone who has been a contemporary pioneer in revitalizing some of these archaic techniques, often speaks of “old-time, folksy, soulful, artisanal processes”… that “slicker technologies have displaced.”

She labels these processes “holistic.

Wanna see some of these holistic processes and the gorgeous works that they yield?

At Glen Echo Park’s Photoworks Gallery, “a group of likeminded photographers presents work that is more than just nostalgia. Each photographer lends her/his own voice with their unique, hand-made images, some of which are augmented by hand tinting. While the images are contemporary, the artisanal nature of the images harkens to an earlier age. The tension between these qualities makes them TIMELESS.”

Represented in the exhibit are works by Rodrigo Barrera-Sagastume, Paige Billin-Frye, Mac Cosgrove-Davies, Scott Davis, Sebastian Hesse-Kastein, William Shelton and Redeat Wondemu.

In addition to the opening, Photoworks will be offering related demonstration and hands-on events during the exhibition:

Zoom Artist Talk (Friday, July 15, 7-8pm) – for those unable to attend the opening, this is an opportunity to hear from and interact with the artists. Learn about the artist and their vision, their chosen photographic processes and related classes offered at Photoworks.

Champagne and Platinum (Friday, July 22, 7-10pm at Photoworks) - spend a delightful evening with the Alt-Photo crowd in the Photoworks Gallery sipping bubbly and watching a live demo of the platinum printing process. Platinum printing allows delicate rendering of image detail with an astonishing tonal range and legendary permanence. ($20 per person)

Wet Plate Demonstration (Saturday, July 23, 11am-2pm at Glen Echo Park) – This is a live demonstration of the photographic process that was dominant from the 1850s-70s (i.e during the US Civil War. The photographer must sensitize, expose, and develop the plate in a matter of minutes, using a portable darkroom. Results are available immediately.

Sun Printing (July 30, 11am-2pm) - A family friendly fun-for-all where everyone makes cyanotype shadowgrams. This is an excellent introduction to cyanotype process. Cyanotype is the simplest historic photographic process to learn. It also can deliver extraordinary creative expression.

Staying on the theme of photography, and through July 24, Multiple Exposures Gallery presents an exhibition of New Photography by Tom Sliter titled "Cold Warriors." On exhibit is “a series of images that takes a different look at the aircraft that defined the Cold War. Rather than focusing on the aircraft’s characteristics, the exhibit delves into the underlying design elements -- the grand sweeps, smooth lines, sharp angles, and graceful curves that are a hallmark of pushing boundaries.”

Multiple Exposures is located inside the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, one of the great art jewels of the Mid Atlantic.

37TH Annual Mayor's Arts Awards

The 37TH Annual DC Mayor's Arts Awards will take place in September 2022! 

Please visit www.dcmayorsartsawards.com for more information and to RSVP -- Click here to create an account and to vote!

Me bitchin' to the WaPo in 1995

A general rule of any code of ethics is that if something feels funny or unethical, then it probably is. Add a corollary -- if an action, whether ethical or not, gives the appearance of being unethical, then it is -- and you have a problem with the NMAA and its legacy from the late artist Gene Davis.

Read my Letter to the Editor from 1995 here.

Artist Panel: Home-Land: Exploring the American Myth

Curators Michael Quituisaca and Alexandra Schuman, together with the artists of the exhibition "Home-Land Exploring the American Myth" at  the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center will present an artists' discussion and talk panel this coming Sunday!

Free! Sign up online here.

Date and time: Sun, July 17, 2022 at 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Location:

American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center

4400 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest

Washington, DC 20016

Taking advantage of the museum’s proximity to the Department of Homeland Security’s Nebraska Avenue Complex, this exhibition explores the impact that American culture has on its citizens both naturalized and native. Using American iconography, consumer and visual culture, and personal experience, the featured eight Washington area artists simultaneously honor and confront the American dream. The idea of “home” is a promise in America that often goes unquestioned. However, these artists reveal that home is not a privilege for all - for some it is taken, for others it is to be fought for and defended, and, for many artists in the show, it is reforged in a new land. This exhibition, "Home-Land: Exploring the American Myth" highlights how these artists have found their place within multiple frameworks of identity, both ascribed and subscribed.

Artists showing: Sobia Ahmad, F. Lennox Campello, Elizabeth Casqueiro, Ric Garcia, Claudia "Aziza" Gibson-Hunter, Julia Kwon, Khánh H. Lê, and Helen Zughaib

This event will be held in-person at the museum.

Anniversary of the July 11 uprising

Last year, and for the first time (at least in my memory) there were widespread protests in Cuba - the shouts were for "Libertad" which means "freedom."  Thousands of people were arrested, many were murdered and many disappeared.

There are planned protests on the first anniversary, and the Marxist dictators are sure to react with a bloody reprisal again - let's pray for these brave men, women and children on the streets of that poor brutalized island!

"Isla Herida"
1980 F. Lennox Campello
Original Watercolor
In a private collection in Coral Gables, FL

And here again is the flag for the uprising that I designed last year! A take-off on the 26th of July flag - this one has the colors of the Cuban flag (Red, White and Blue).  The red stripe is slightly larger than the blue, in honor of the blood being spilled on the streets of Cuba.  The "11J" in white is for 11 July!

11 July Uprising Flag
by Florencio Lennox Campello

#11J

Opportunity for DMV artists

Art Maryland 2022

Deadline: August 1

Art Maryland is a biennial survey show of artists in Maryland and the surrounding areas (specifically, artists living or working within 100 miles of the Center, including Washington, DC and parts of Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania).

All artists, 18 years or older, residing in Maryland or within a 100-mile radius of Ellicott City, Maryland, and working in any medium are invited to submit up to three artworks for consideration for the exhibit Art Maryland 2022. 

Entries must have been completed in the last two years and can not have been previously exhibited in the Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) galleries.

Visit HCAC's application portal to apply.

Want your art critiqued?

When: Tuesday, July 12 at 6pm EST

Who: Art Clinic Online

LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7135915273

ACO will continue to discuss art in general and conduct some friendly critiques of art. If you would like feedback on your work, kindly send images to Mariana (mkastrin@gmail.com) before the Tuesday session. Suggested topics for discussion are welcome.

The day I found myself in a metaverse of Frida Kahlos

More early odd works from current scanning of old art slides... this is "The day I found myself in a metaverse of Frida Kahlos" from 1980, when I was in art school at the University of Washington in Seattle.