There are a couple of new art galleries in the area. In Baltimore (thanks J.T) Billy Coulbert is in the process of opening Cubicle 10, and in Bethesda, the Ozmosis Gallery just opened last month.

Ozmosis Gallery focuses on abstract and non-objective works. Each month the gallery presents a new exhibition with an opening reception on the second Friday of the month. The opening receptions are from 6-9pm and are free and open to the public as well as being a stop on Bethesda’s Art Walk trolley route.

Currently on exhibition are paintings by Michaele Harrington to be followed in August by Elizabeth Terra.

Sunday is the Bethesda Artist's Market. The market runs from 10am-5:30pm in the Bethesda Place Plaza located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue. Nearly 30 local and regional artists will display and sell their original fine art and fine craft.

See ya there!

There's a Catholic school playground joke that goes like this:

A well dressed man approaches a woman, and after chatting her up a bit, asks her: "Will you have sex with me for one million dollars?"

"Yeah!" responds the woman.

"How about five bucks?" then asks the guy.

"Five bucks!," says the woman full of indignation, "What do you think I am?"

"We both know what you are," says the man, "We're just trying to arrive at a price."

In New York artist Andrea Fraser's case, it was $20,000.

Brilliant!

Prediction: Live sex as high art will be next.

John Perrault has a beautiful review and stories about Ana Mendieta and the Mendieta retrospective at the Whitney. Perrault knew Mendieta intimately, as he was a former teacher and friend.

Today's New York Times also has a review of the show by Holland Cotter. This second review, in my opinion, misses the point a bit, as it relies on the old art critic's crutch of writing mostly a biography about the artist to fluff up the review and add words.

An earlier New York Times review by Lesli Cahmi can be read here.

The show comes to Washington later this year at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Tonite is the Bethesda Art Walk, with around fifteen art venues and galleries participating. The shuttle bus route is available online here.

And this coming Sunday is the Bethesda Artist Market. The market runs from 10am-5:30pm in the Bethesda Place Plaza located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue. Nearly 30 local and regional artists will display and sell their original fine art and fine craft.

Free parking is available in the Wisconsin/Cheltenham garage. The event is also accessible by the Bethesda Metro station. Artists interested in participating in future events should download the entry form which is due July 23.

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, located just south of Eastern Market at 545 7th Street, is a thirty-two year old organization building community through the arts with year-round classes, exhibits, and programs.

They are currently working with thirteen Capitol Hill restaurants on an upcoming benefit event, The Flavor of Capitol Hill: A Dining Event for the Arts. The event is planned for Thursday, July 15th with two restaurants participating on Saturday, July 17th.

To learn more about this event call Jen Carr at (202) 547-6839 or visit The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop's website.

Jessica Dawson has a really excellent review of Nikki S. Lee's show of photographs of herself at Numark Gallery.

DC is humming with a lot of new gallery shows opening soon... this is certainly not a sleepy summer in the art gallery scene, and any writer/critic/BLOGger that claims that is just lazy.

Ready.......

Fusebox is without a doubt one of the best galleries in our area, and no one around here works harder than their two owners, Finlay and Murcia. Fusebox will next host Charles Juhász-Alvarado's Fuse Muse, curated by Laura Roulet, in their main exhibition space, and a Summer Group Exhibition in their project space. Both exhibitions open July 10 and run through August 7, 2004. A reception for the artists will be held Saturday, July 10, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Charles Juhász-Alvarado is one of Puerto Rico’s most exceptional and talented young artists. While included in numerous solo and group exhibitions on the island and abroad, this exhibit will be his debut in Washington DC.

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Not too far from Fusebox, the Gallery at Flashpoint has "Ami Martin Wilber: contained existence" opening on Thursday, July 15. The site-specific installation will include one hundred of her sculptures composed of steel, rubber, Pyrex beakers, and human hair. Through August 14.

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At Spectrum Gallery in Georgetown, Elsie Hull, Karen Keating, Grace Taylor, and Judith Walser will have an exhibition called "Prisma at Spectrum Gallery, Four Photographers - Four Visions."

By the way, both Karen Keating and Grace Taylor, are but a handful of DC area photographers that I know of with a Sotheby's secondary market record.

The opening reception is on July 15 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Spectrum Gallery has been in Georgetown since 1966! Considering that most galleries shut down in six months or less, this is quite an accomplishment!

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At Touchstone Gallery, "Take 10: Works by Ten Washington Photographers" - Diana Adams, Kay Chernush, Patrice Gilbert, Ruth Schilling Harwood, Lisa Masson, Irene Owsley, Margaret Paris, Barbara Tyroler, Harriet Wise, and Pamela Zilly with an opening reception on July 9, 6 - 8:30 PM.

Touchstone has been around since 1976!

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One of DC's art firebrands, curator Andrea Pollan has organized "Plastic Tactics" - Outdoor Sculpture on Mt. Royal Avenue between Cathedral & Lanvale Streets. The Artists are Kathryn Cornelius, Decatur Blue, Jill Greenberg, T. Charnan Lewis, Gabriel Martinez, Renée Rendine, Jeff Spaulding, Dan Steinhilber, Daniel Sullivan and Team Response.

Opening Reception: Friday, July 9, 6-9pm

Los Angeles Center For Digital Art Call for Artists...

Deadline for entries: September 5, 2004

LACDA announces an open call for their un-juried show featuring digital art and photography: "Snap to Grid."

All entries will be printed (8.5"x11" on Epson heavyweight matte paper) and shown in their gallery arranged in a grid. Note to artists: This is an open competition, which means exactly that: ALL entries will be accepted and shown.

Entrants submit one JPEG file of original work. All styles of 2D artwork and photography where digital processes of any kind were integral to the creation of the images are acceptable. Digital video stills and screen shots of web/new media are acceptable.

Prior to and after the exhibition the images and artist information will be available to gallery visitors to view in their artist portfolios. Prints can be made available to buyers on an as needed basis. Artwork for future exhibits will be selected from the portfolios, and will also be available for review by area gallerists, curators and arts journalists.

Show Dates: September 9-October 1, 2004 and the registration fee is $30. Submission Rules: Registration and submission are done through their web site only. File uploads are the only accepted submissions and are maximum of 2MB each and not exceed 1024x768 pixels in dimensions.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund Grant

Deadline: September 15, 2004.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund invites visual artists (excluding filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists) to apply for grants to enable recipients to develop their talent and concentrate on their art.

Artists must be 40 years or older, and must live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C. Two grants will be awarded in 2004. Grants awarded in 2003 were for $25,000 and $20,000.

Applications must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2004.

To obtain a current application form, please visit the Fund's website, or write to the Fund at 5505 Connecticut Avenue, NW #268, Washington, D.C. 20015. Send email inquiries to this email address.

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The Ruth Chenven Foundation

Deadline: July 31, 2004.

Awards up to $1,500 to U.S. crafts artists engaged in or planning a project. For more information, send a SASE to: Ruth Chenven Foundation, 7505 Jackson Ave., Tacoma Park, MD 20912.

Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Emergency Grants

Emergency grants are offered to artists who find themselves in need of financial assistance for unforeseen catastrophic events, including fire, flood, or emergency medical needs.

Open to artists working in painting, sculpture, or printmaking. Must be able to demonstrate at least 10 years in a mature phase of their work. Funding is not available for chronic situations, capital improvements, or projects.

To request an application form, contact:

Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation
380 W. Broadway
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 226-0581
Fax: (212) 226-0584.

For more information, check their website here.

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The Artists Fellowship provides funding to professional fine artists and their families during times of emergency, disability, or bereavement. The Fellowship does not accept requests from performance artists, filmmakers, craft artists, hobbyists, commercial artists, or commercial photographers.

For more information, contact:

Artists' Fellowship, Inc.
47 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10003
Phone: (646) 230-9833 or check website.

The Post's Sunday Arts had this wonderful article By Peter Marks profiling ten young, emerging DC actors.

Why not have one of the Post's visual art critics write the same kind of article about ten young, emerging DC visual artists? Either O'Sullivan or Dawson could probably very easily write a piece highlighting ten young (say under 40) area artists. It would be great food for discussion, disagreement and fun. And it would help propel some of those artist's careers.

Instead we get this.

I tried not to mention this, since I am so glad the WCP did such a good job in their article about Manon Cleary, but in the same issue of the WCP there's a review (by another writer) that begins like this...

"The most striking thing about the photographs of Frida Kahlo and her muralist husband, Diego Rivera, currently on display at the Mexican Cultural Institute is how much Kahlo looks like her self-portraits."

I'm I the only one going...

Duh!

The current issue of the Washington City Paper has one of the best articles about an artist that I have ever read in the Washington press.

The article is by John Metcalfe and it is about Manon Cleary, in my opinion, not only the best artist in the Washington area, but perhaps the most powerful realist brush in the nation.

Manon is represented locally by Addison/Ripley Fine Art and in Baltimore by Light Street Gallery and her life and work read like an artist's life should read - including all the suffering and destruction that goes along with being a creative genius.

John Metcalfe has done a terrific job in re-creating the lifestyle and the life led by Cleary, although I wish the article had included some images of Cleary's artwork.

Let this be the first call for a Manon Cleary retrospective at either the Hirshhorn Museum or the Corcoran.

It is long overdue for one of those two Washington museums to give a well-deserved show to Washington's best-known and most talented artist.

Jeff Bloom has a great new online resource for Greater Washington area photographers. It is DC Photo Scene and it is a really great resource for what's going on our area about or for photography.

I've just been told some great news. There is a committee which is planning an Art-O-Matic for 2004! The official Art-O-Matic website has some info about it.

The Art-O-Matic 2004 Steering Committee has a BLOG here.

Art-O-Matic is without a doubt the single greatest art event that happens in Washington, DC. Nothing comes close to it in visual power and impact.

For information about future Art-O-Matic events, artists should sign up here.

The 2004 Steering Committe has some very talented and well-versed-in-the-DC art scene names.

People such as artists Richard Dana, Judy Jashinsky, Rima Schulkind, Andres Tremols and others as well as collector Philip Barlow and art activist George Koch.

I cannot say enough good things about Art-O-Matic. My review of Art-O-Matic 2002 can be read online here and a second review of that same show can be read here.

If you'd like to be a part of Art-O-Matic 2004, as an artist, performer, or volunteer, check out the information on the Art-O-Matic 2004 Get Involved page.

The long awaited and often-protested against, Gunther von Hagens exhibition “Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies" finally makes its U.S. debut in Los Angeles as part of a notorious world tour that started in 1996. The exhibition is at the California Science Center.

Initially intended to teach people about the human skeletal, cardiovascular and other systems, the exhibit includes 25 bodies that have undergone a process called “plastination” in which body fluids are replaced with clear, pliable plastic. It has become an art show, rather than just a science show and somehow pushed aside the YBAs less horrific attempts to do the same with animals.

According to the article, during exhibit stops in Asia and Europe, about 6,000 people have signed papers donating their bodies to von Hagens' institute for possible plastination.

Pushing figurative art even further. Just when one thinks that representational art cannot be coaxed into producing anything "new." And as we all know, "new" is what seduces art critics into auto-thinking "good."

When does a Biennale become a scam?

Read this.

Thanks to Arts Scuttlebutt, without a doubt one of the best online resources in the world for artists, where you can post questions about just about anything dealing with the visual arts and you'll get experienced responses.

Today is the first Friday of the month and thus the Dupont Circle Galleries will be having their monthly extended hours from 6-8 PM.

See ya there!

Congratulations to (formerly from Miss.) Reston, Virginia photographer James W. Bailey, who just won the Albert J. Turbessi Award this past Sunday for his photograph, “Woman at the Tomb,” at the 47th Chautauqua Exhibition of American Art, which was juried by Donald Kuspit.