A couple of days ago I dropped by Adams Morgan to catch the "Wall Mountables Show" at the District of Columbia Arts Center.

Once a year, DCAC has an open call to artists. The gallery gets divided into 1460 squares, each measuring two square feet and then any artist (on a first-come-first-served basis) can buy wall space in the gallery in any of the 1460 2 feet x 2 feet exhibit squares. Each space is only $10 for DCAC non-members and $5 for DCAC members and each artist can purchase up to five spaces.

Sort of like a mini Art-O-Matic, but nobody slams it for being "open" and "democratic." And that's good, because DCAC is one of the great cultural jewels in our city.

And thus, I reveal my cards early: I like DCAC and all that it stands for, making objective criticism very difficult, but then again I don't think any critic is truly objective. Agendas may be hidden, disguised, or even sub-consciously unknown, but they are all there.

But I meander.

To quote Glenn Dixon... "Like any summertime grab bag...

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Like any open show, where anything and everything is hung, these shows are truly a democratic grab bag. There is some really good work (as seen from the perspective of an artist (which most critics are not, although there some), and a gallery-owner (which most critics are not) and critic (which most critics are... uh...)) and some abysmal work - seen from two of the three perspectives that can't be fooled (one is easily fooled).

The worst entry in this show is a puzzling entry by an artist who also has a couple of other decent pieces hanging. It's by Kristina Bilonick (in collaboration with Rob Gardner) and it is titled "At A Glance." It's an used sheet from those "At A Glance" desk calendars, but filled in with scribbles and things. For one post-modernist second, in some rarified New York super cool gallery, by some blue chip artist (or Damien Hirst) this would have been a subject of oohs and aahs. In this exhibition and context it comes across as a waste of space.

Don't get me wrong Kristina and Rob - there are quite a few really bad pieces of art in the show - Arlene Mester's childlike drawings on lined paper come to mind (unless she's actually a teenage girl doodling in High School, in which case they're not really awful bad, just .... bad. And Dav Idanthro Nysmith's (winner of the coolest name in the show) entry of an empty frame that just shows the backing board cardboard as the "art," came in a close second.

To me these works seemed weak because they came across as lazy; the sort of work that college art students turn in at the last minute when they realize that the quarterly art project is due and they haven't actually done anything (been there - done that).

There are some really big names in this show, people like Manon Cleary, Graham Caldwell and Dan Steinhilber.

Cleary, who lives around the corner, shows one of her trademark floral paintings, surreally beautiful in an art world where that word is often diminished. But let's not forget that this is the same powerful painter who painted her own rape. I like her piece in this show (titled "Exotic Bloom # 2") because it shows the tremendous delicacy of skill that Cleary abundantly possesses and that is so rare these days. There are at least four or five other painters in this show that attempt to paint similar subject matter and fail miserably.

I also liked Steinhilber's piece, which is a large red dot made up of smaller stick-on red dots. I liked it because of the clever use of the red dot to convey a visual idea and a concept. The red dot is used by gallerists to denote a sold work of art.

J.T. Kirkland has several interesting pieces in the show, and I must admit, that after seeing Kirkland expose his work at his most excellent BLOG, that I was somewhat expecting to see work like this.

Instead I found several interesting exploratory works that really show Kirkland's interest in researching surface and color - a path taken (in fact a requirement I submit) by most young artists. The works on display, especially the untitled piece (people - please title your work! Learn to title from Barnett Newman) that has a blue color as the dominant color, with reddish edges and marked by a series of drilled holes; I quite liked because it was both visually appealing, technically well done and it showed an artist exploring his interest in texture.

I also liked Franklin Wassmer acrid trompe l'oeil paintings, which go past just faux paintings by introducing acrid pop art colors as background, which instead of being distracting from the false sense of reality (or as Blake Gopnik calls it "illusionism") add a sense of a painter who is armed with well-honed painting skills and is now having fun with color.

I was somewhat attracted to Erin Hunter's "Moon Over a Keen City," until I realized that Hunter is either regurgigating or channeling Erik Sandberg, but lacks Sandberg's brilliant painting skills.

Andrea Haffner's "Twin Set 4" cleverly uses two small images of body parts to re-assemble them in a visual re-organizing that makes the final piece quite interesting in a very intimate way. It's perhaps the most elegant use of the space in the show and the best photograph.

I'm running out of steam...

Other notables are Graham Caldwell's glass sculpture from (I think) his "Entanglement" series, and Dan Randall's oil depicting his continuous obsession with airplanes and Linn Myers' entry - another one of her squiggly lines series.

In a very clear sense, what this show delivers is an excellent opportunity for area artists and collectors to both support a great asset to our city's visual arts tapestry and also for artists to exhibit their work.

The worst place for artwork (even the ones I didn't like) is in the artist's studio or home, and thus not being shown to the public. I encourage all of you out there to become DCAC members and show at next year's version of this show.

While I was at DCAC, several people came in and viewed the exhibition. It was, as it always is, a terrific lesson about the trite but true saying "art is in the eyes of the beholder," as I always discover -- as I listen to people discuss the art-- that we humans have an incredible range of what we like or don't like, and some of the artwork that I didn't like and discussed earlier, was clearly the favorite of some of the visitors.

This grab bag had loads of different presents for all of us.

Pilfered from AJ:

One of the most famous paintings in the world has been stolen in broad daylight at gun point in Norway.

A second story here.

The Latin American Cultural Space has an excellent program called "One and a Half Program for Emerging Artists," that often organizes shows at the Consulate of El Salvador.

Its next show at the Consulate will be new work by Trinindad Coopman, whose show is titled "Past and Present" and opens on August 27 with a reception from 6-8 PM. The exhibition closes on September 12. The Consulate is located at 1724 20th STreet, NW near the Dupont Circle Metro station.

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GWU graduate Nina Chung Dwyer, who as a student exhibited in both Conner Contemporary's and our past area student shows, has a solo at the Artist's Gallery in Frederick, Maryland from 3-26 September with an opening reception on September 4, from 5-8 PM. By the way, on the first Saturday of the month, Frederick holds a gallery walk during which the town welcomes gallery viewers with visual art, music and food.

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Zenith Gallery has a new show opening September 10 to October 17 of new work by Sica, whose work Zenith has represented for over two decades. Opening receptions to meet the artist are September 17, from 6 - 9pm (this event to include music by Patrick Collins and dance by Linden Holt) and September 18 from 1 - 4pm.

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Perhaps the best fine art glass focused gallery in the world, the Maurine Littleton Gallery in Georgetown will present new mixed media sculptures by Ginny Ruffner. This exhibition will feature diverse examples of Ms. Ruffner's art. The show has been timed to coincide with The Flowering Tornado: Art by Ginny Ruffner, a traveling exhibition of the artist's work, organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, opening at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia September 30, 2004 through January 16, 2005. Ruffner's exhibition dates are October 5 - 20, 2004, with an opening reception to meet the artist on October 3 from 5-7 PM.

John Rockwell writes today in the New York Times Arts section:

"A lot of art, especially of the past, has set out to be beautiful; a lot of art, especially of the present, has set out to be ugly... And yet there has been a kind of semi-guilty underground cult of beauty that has persisted through our ugly times.

...Art moves in cycles, reacting against what came just before. Maybe some of us have grown weary of being hectored by films, by flashy images and loud music and conventional stories, however well told, that dictate what we should be feeling. At least some of us, at least occasionally, downright crave an antidote in the form of pure beauty."

I think that the Arts Editor of the NYT may be a closet mossback!

Thanks AJ!

Our "public art" pandas are getting vandalized, one has even been stolen, but as Tracy Lee points out, in Sweden (where they have cows instead of pandas as public art), some local Stockholm artists have taken matters into their own hands and kidnapped one and are staging a protest.

There are 68 more fiber-glass cows grazing on pavements, squares and in shop-windows all around Stockholm.

The cows are part of Cowparade and the concept and cows are apparently traveling all over the world. Website here.

Thanks to the several readers who emailed me with a definition of "mossback."

1. An old shellfish or turtle with a growth of algae on its back.
2. An old, large, or sluggish fish.
3. An extremely conservative or old-fashioned person.

So, I'm definately a mossback!

Glenn Dixon is back to his old self (I think) and is a bit more opinionated and sarcastic in these mini reviews in today's Post, although he mixes it up with a couple of plain, "descriptive" reviews as well. Dixon is at his best when he expresses an opinion and thus reveals his art personality in his writing.

J.T. Kirkland also has a few words on Dixon over at Thinking About Art.

I would like someone to email me and explain what Dixon means by a "mossback" when he writes:

"Like any summertime grab bag, Conner Contemporary's survey of work by local art grads is hit-or-miss. The scruffy portraiture of J. Jordan Bruns and the fluorescent-lit interiors of Matt Klos will gratify only mossbacks who feared the academy had stopped teaching academic painting. But video artist Annie Schap steals the show. In "Say It With Feeling," she stabs a can of Miller and effortfully sucks the beer out of the side of the can, capping her performance with a burped "I love you" that blurs the line between emotional and physical stress. "Love Hurts Hands," in which Nazareth's deathless power ballad is spelled out line by line across the artist's knuckles, biker-tattoo-style, is the best music video I've seen in five years. It analyzes the cynical, seductive language of pop in a way that only reinforces its hold on the imagination."

He's obviously disliking Bruns and Klos' works because they're well-done, representational work (and thus academic)... and that's his right as a critic and person to join the tired tradition of contemporary critics disliking representational paintings (or painting period), but he lost me with the adjective "mossback" to describe people who like a well executed painting.

Perhaps it is a quaint, local term? Or is the word's meaning the antonym of a "rolling stone gathers no moss" saying?

I think that I am a mossback, so I'd like to know what it means...

DCist is a new online resource about DC, and they have a good posting about the Blake Gopnik idea first discussed here last Sunday.

More about DCist here.

Other good comments from Erik's Rants here and also from Greg.org here.

Today is the Third Thursday of the month, and thus the downtown galleries have their extended hours.

The exhibition at Flashpoint sounds specially interesting. It's called "Sensory Overload" and it is a Multi-media Performance and Preview of the DC Sonic Circuits Festival. It is a fundraiser for Flashpoint, and it starts at 8 PM and there's a $10 donation.

The night will feature live dance performances, painting, performance art and laptop-based sound processing. Performers include Marni Leikin - Visual/performance art, Jane Pingleton Evans (Visual/performance art), Amber King (Visual art), Jane Jerardi (Choreography/dance), Scott Allison (Laptop sound and video art), Doug Wolf (Laptop sound and video art), Derek Morton (Laptop sound and video art) and Rebecca Mills (Laptop sound and video art).

And then, tomorrow is the third Friday of August and the Canal Square Galleries will have their new openings, from 6-9 PM.

See ya there!

Spent around 17 hours in line yesterday with my daughter Elise, who is visiting from Gig Harbor, Washington. She tried out for American Idol. I had intended to drop her off at the Convention Center, but as she's only 17 I had to stay with her all day.

Thus the lack of any postings yesterday.

Please, pluuuuuzheee! go and read this cartoon!

Thanks AJ!

American University is looking to hire a Curator for their new Art Gallery.

The American University, College of Arts and Sciences announces an open position for Curator of the art gallery at the new Katzen Arts Center. This position will be responsible for artistic and creative direction of the gallery including: overall planning for gallery collections, collection development, conservation, management, operations, and exhibitions and programming.

Duties include coordinating press and public relations, seeking donations for art collections, assisting in capital fundraising, working with academic units to integrate students and curricula into gallery operations, developing proposals for program enrichment, and planning for the opening of the Katzen Arts Center.

Qualifications required include graduate degree in art history or related field, PhD preferred, and curatorial/exhibition experience. Salary: Commensurate with qualifications and experience.

To apply, complete an application in person or send your resume to:

American University
Office of Human Resources
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016-8054

e-mail: careers@american.edu.
Fax: 202-885-1737.

Applicants may also download an application from this web site.

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Virginia Commission for the Arts is looking for a Program Coordinator.

Deadline: September 14, 2004.

Description: Grants Administration. Work with arts organizations, local governments, and artists in preparing applications for funding. Coordinate application review process by helping to recruit advisory panelists, preparing applications and supporting information for review by the panelists, and responding to applicants on funding decisions. Monitor reporting by grantees. Revise application and report forms for use by grantees as needed. Code grantee activity in agency database.

Public Information: Provide information to artists, arts organizations, and the general public on programs and services of the Commission through meetings, the telephone, and public appearances. Write and distribute press releases on Commission activities. Maintain lists of artists and arts organizations. Represent the Commission at conferences and meetings.

Agency Planning: Track and report to the Executive Director on trends in the arts around the state on an on-going basis. Assist in long and short range planning for the agency. Assist in evaluating agency services.

Special Projects: Conduct annual orientation for performers in Tour Directory. Assist Executive Director on special projects.

Qualifications: Knowledge of the arts. Strong written and oral communications skills. Understanding of effective management practices in the arts. Administrative skills. Talent for diplomacy, tact, and good judgement. Two or more years of work experience in the arts. Undergraduate degree or equivalent training in the arts or arts administration; graduate degree preferred. Ability and willingness to travel.

Salary: $30,000 - $40,000. To apply send resume and cover letter to:

Peggy Baggett
Executive Director
Virginia Commission for the Arts
223 Governor Street
Richmond, VA 23219

Or email peggy.baggett@arts.virginia.gov.

Opportunities for Artists

The Gunk Foundation is interested in supporting projects that make it out of the museum, gallery, and alternative spaces and into the spaces of daily life.

"We want work that is shown in the spaces of public transportation, city streets, or work places and is seen by people 'outside' of the art and academic worlds. We are also interested in work that catches one by surprise -- the audience may not plan to be an audience (like planning to go see a performance) but is one inadvertently (the performance happens on the street on their way to work) and non-traditional, thought-provoking public work that is site specific: i.e. the context in which it is seen is essential to its meaning. It is our belief that work that is site specific and that cuts into the space of everyday life will have the most profound effect on politicizing the public realm."

Grants are provided for "works" of art (not, for example, art festivals, group exhibitions or general operating support for public art organizations). Two cycles yearly; postmark deadlines April 30 and October 31. Visit their site for criteria and to read about funded work: www.gunk.org.

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Kokoro Studio Retreat Center - Vermont.

Applications accepted on an ongoing basis. Located in the foothills of the Green Mountains, offers artists a retreat space with an open studio environment. Open to visual artists, writers, theater artists, and all other disciplines. To request a brochure contact: Kokoro Studio Retreat Center, RR1, Box 192, Castleton, VT 05735. For more information, call (802) 273-2278; Fax: (802) 273-3402; or email: kokoro@sover.net.

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World Studio Foundation - New York

WSF provides scholarships to minority and economically disadvantaged students who are studying the design and/or arts disciplines in American colleges and universities. Among the Foundation's primary aims are to increase diversity in the creative professions, and to foster social responsibility in the artists and designers of tomorrow. To this end, scholarship recipients are selected not only for their ability and their need, but also for their demonstrated commitment to giving back to the larger community. For more info call, (212)366-1317, ext. 18. Fax:(212) 807-0024. Website: www.worldstudio.org.

Tyler Green, over at Modern Art Notes, doesn't think that the Blake Gopnik WCP idea will fly.

Elyse Harrison, owner and director of Neptune Gallery in Bethesda has an exhibition of her mixed media sculptures at Neptune from August 12-21.

Usable Quotes for Artists (and their succubi: art critics)

"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing."
Salvador Dali

"The future will soon be a thing of the past."
George Carlin

"God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, the ant. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things."
Pablo Ruiz Picasso

"Not even the most powerful organs of the press, including Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times, can discover a new artist or certify his work and make it stick. They can only bring you the scores."
Tom Wolfe

"I am not a Communist..."
Fidel Castro

I'll be the first one to admit that Blake Gopnik has shattered my almost 100% cemented opinion of him in relation to the area art scene with this excellent idea published in today's Sunday WP.

He calls for the creation of the Washington Collectors' Project. And he writes:

"Here's how it would work: A consortium of the city's best collectors of contemporary art would come together to make their art available for exhibition. They would find a modest, white-cube space and invite independent curators to fill it with selections from their holdings."

My kudos to Blake for a great idea! And I agree that such a project "might even set an example that could get other well-heeled Washingtonians purchasing contemporary art."

Of course, we'd all get into an immediate and fun argument as to what "contemporary" means. To Blake it's obviously at least Arbus, Judd and Hirst - names that a lot of young curators and collectors may already find old and quaintly traditional -- that's what happens when one endorses the "new" rather than what's good. To some, Arbus, Judd and Hirst may already belong in the company of the Matisses and Oldenburgs.

It's a great idea, although Blake shows his inexperience in the business aspect of running an art space if he considers that the "cost would be minimal." A key to it would be a free space (rent is the killer for most art galleries and institutions), but heating and cooling costs, added to the astronomical cost of insuring artwork, plus the cost of printing materials, plus the cost of publicity, not to mention salaries of all involved all adds up to a substantial amount of funds just to get the place kick started - even if a dozen wealthy collectors threw in their financial backing at once.

If as Gopnik suggests, the area's embassies are involved, then perhaps an international arrangement also involving finances could be included!

Let's say that the concept of operations, as suggested by Gopnik, could be to include the embassies to help bring international curators to the WCP - why not then perhaps expand the concept to have one quarter of the exhibition program be dedicated to international exhibits and tie that to financial assistance from the culture ministers at Embassy Row? This will demand careful scrutiny, as it could be borderline "vanity" curating, but I am sure the kinks could be worked out.

A few years ago a small European nation forked over four million dollars to a local area museum to showcase one of their artists. That was almost downright "vanity museum show" but it implies that there exist financial resources that (if ethically approached) could be used to help finance a WCP.

Another way for the WCP to possibly raise funds would be for the project to develop a really good website presence that also offered contemporary artwork in an online auction venue, where collectors and other donors (artists) could put their work for a hands-free auction to a worldwide audience and give the WCP a normal auction house cut (15%) or as an outright donation. Both approaches have merit: A normal auction house cut would ensure a constant flow of works to be auctioned off, while outright donations means a full tax write-off for collectors (not artists). The auction process could involve contemporary original work by both established contemporary artists with a secondary art market record as well as emerging living artists with little exposure (and thus more affordable prices).

With the right legitimacy, an online fine art auction presence will work. While Sotheby's had its online auction presence, we, as Associate Dealers for Sothebys.com, were selling on the average around $20,000 worth of art each month by mostly area artists to collectors all over the world, seeking good, edgy, contemporary work by young, emerging artists. It can be done! Read this.

I am dumbfounded that museums or other legitimate art institutions have not tapped into this void left when Sotheby's folded its online operations (due to astounding lack of knowledge of online business practices on their part - in my opinion) that were allegedly selling one million dollars a day!

Kudos to Blake for a great idea - now it's time for the volunteers and wealthy area collectors to step forward.

I'll be glad to help - count me in!

A while back I made some comments on the subject of galleryphobia. Other similar experiences by other gallerists soon followed.

Today, as I sit in the gallery, and observe that Bethesda Plaza is once again packed with people awaiting to be called to the Original Pancake House, and yet only a few brave souls dare to enter the gallery, while dozens float back and forth attempting to view the entire exhibition through the glass walls, I am reminded of another gallery phenomenom: Bin Magnetism, also sometimes called Print Rack Magnetism.

I've not only observed Bin Magnetism evidenced at our two galleries, but also at every single gallery that I've visited that has a floor bin (or print rack) loaded with shrink wrapped matted two dimensional work.

You know the kind; nearly every gallery has one (they usually look like this)- loaded with art work that can be purchased and (usually) taken away immediately - as opposed to the month-long permanence of the scheduled exhibitions on the walls.

Anyway, what I have observed is that there exists a phase two to galleryphobia.

Once the galleryphobia-afflicted person has received enough counseling and encouragement, and then (after a deep breath), dares to actually enter the art gallery, he or she is often immediately and irresistibly attracted by some invisible and powerful force directly to the art bin, much like a stranded swimmer making his way to a floating log in the middle of the ocean.

This is phase two of galleryphobia, hereafter referred to as Bin Magnetism.

And if the gallery happens to have more than one floor bin, then the person usually contracts a more severe and acute case of Bin Magnetism and then makes his way from art bin to art bin, as if swimming from one safe spot to another. Sometimes they work their way around the gallery that way, breathlessly going through the shrinkwrapped artwork, eyes locked onto those pieces, avoiding any eye contact with anyone else, and unfortunately often not even looking up at the exhibition actually hung on the walls before they make their way out of the gallery.

The Bin Magnetized victim can often be rescued and cured by approaching them, smiling at them and starting a light conversation. Once they get over their startled look at discovering that the gallerist is (sometimes) a human being capable of speech, the disease if usually cured on the spot.

In rare ocassions, the Bin Magnetized victim will be allergic to this proven cure and react by either fainting or running away at an Olympic clip.

Better Home & Gardens tells us how to hang pictures in our homes.

Target Gallery, the national exhibition space of the Torpedo Factory Art Center, will host Transformed by Fire: Glass Today from September 1 through October 3, 2004. The exhibition includes pieces by 31 artists from across the United States, with 19 from the Washington, DC area. Sally Hansen, owner of The Glass Gallery in Bethesda, MD, selected all of the works on view. A reception and gallery talk will be held on Thursday, September 9, from 6-8 PM.