Today is the 3rd Thursday of the month, so tonight you can go and visit the 7th street corridor art galleries and art venues as part of the 3rd Thursday Gallery late hours.

Also tonight, the The Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States has its inaugural exhibition of the season with an opening reception from 6-8 PM for a group show titled "Artists of the Americas." The exhibit runs until January 16, 2005.

And tomorrow is Georgetown's turn for gallery openings.

I just found out that there's a new gallery in Georgetown's Canal Square and thus we have a new neighbor and now five galleries in the Square.

The Anne C. Fisher Gallery moved from Wisconsin Avenue and its Canal Square inaugural show will be work by Beth Cartland in an exhibition titled "Moving Forward - Looking Back."

The opening reception will be from 6-8 pm on Friday, September 17th as part of the Georgetown Third Friday openings and there will be an artists' talk and reception on Sunday, October 3 at 2 pm.

In addition there will be a workshop: "Cycles of Your Life: An Exploration through Art and Movement" on Sunday, September 26th from 1-3:30 pm. Call the Gallery for registration and information at 202/625.7550.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

When one can't fight the system, then one tries to take over the system.

The well-known and documented dislike of contempory painting by most museum curators and mainstream media art critics infects all levels of the art world.

In Canada, when the first biennial $50,000 Sobey Art Award was announced two years ago, not one of the five finalists were painters, and the 2004 finalists only included the silly doodles of Marcel Dzama.

So what did the Canadians do?

They established the Plaskett Foundation Award, one of the largest visual-arts awards in Canada, with a purse of $25,000 and open only to painters!

We need something like that around here.

Call for Artists - Homage to Frida Kahlo

Deadline: The active dates for submitting artwork to this exhibition are September 15, 2004 through January 31, 2005.

As discussed earlier, Art.com has a call for artists in an Homage to Frida Kahlo curated by yours truly with the sponsorship of the Mexican Cultural Institute.

All entries will be done online. There is no fee for artists and the following prizes will be awarded:

1st Prize: Airfare, hotel and expenses for 3-day/3-night trip for two to the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City , Mexico. (Total package valued up to $2,500.)

2nd Prize: $1,000

3rd Prize: $150 towards a Print on Demand order through Art.com Original Art & Photography

To enter, visit the website here.

The New York Times review of Peter Steinhart's "The Undressed Art: Why We Draw" makes an earlier posting I had a while back relevant again.

So here it is with some revisions...

A while back, Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik discussed the work of John Currin and his success in the art world.

Apart from the silly and erroneous headline, this is actually a very readable article, and as posted by me earlier, I somewhat agree with Gopnik's puzzlement as to Currin's success in the art world.

However, I think that Blake gets most of his supporting arguments wrong, when he discusses why Currin has been so successful.

This is a perfect case where this eloquent art critic lets his personal beliefs and tunnel-visioned agenda (formed by the belief that painting is dead) get in the way of being remotely close to objectivity.

And that's somewhat OK, as critics don't have to be objective - but they should be clear about their beliefs rather than appear to speak from an objective pulpit. Gopnik is a smart, intelligent and eloquent art critic - we all know that; but he has a deeply-rooted belief that painting is dead, and realism, as he once put it: "It's like a vampire that refuses to die."

So we all know that Gopnik has clearly shown that he doesn't like painting and above all he doesn't like realism. According to Gopnik's "Long Live Realism - Realism is Dead" lecture at the Corcoran, realism has been done, so why would "serious" artists still waste their time attempting to continue to do it?

Thus, it is understandable that Gopnik would be particularly repulsed by Currin's work - in fact I dislike it too. But he is wrong in attempting to use Currin's success as an example of why contemporary realism is "dead" in his view.

Gopnik writes that "Within the art world, where Currin's career and reputation have been forged, he can get praise as an original not because he's doing anything new or special but simply because some vanguard curators and collectors don't get out enough."

I disagree that this is the main reason, but I certainly do agree that "vanguard curators" (whoever they are, as no star eclipses faster than a "vanguard" curator once his or her show has closed) don't get out enough.

As far as collectors, I do not believe that Mr. Gopnik (or most museum art critics) knows much about art collectors, so these are just extra, senseless words.

However, what Gopnik does not mention, is that some very influential art critics - much higher in the art world food chain than he is - have also praised Currin and his art, and helped tremendously to build this artist's standing in the rarified upper crust of the art world.

Influential critics like the New York Times' Michael "Dia" Kimmelman likes Currin a lot. In fact Kimmelman has writen that "Mr. Currin is among other things a latter-day Jeff Koons, trafficking in lowdown humor, heartless kitsch and ironic smut, while offering up dollops of finesse, beauty and brains. The combination is disorienting and, at its best, thrilling."

And because of Kimmelman's job, even Blake would have to admit that Kimmelman probably "gets out" a lot, especially around first rate New York galleries, rather than the "third-rate commercial galleries across the country" mentioned in Gopnik's piece.

So it's not just "vanguard curators and collectors [who] don't get out enough," that have made Currin's career. It is also one of the most powerful art critics in the world; and many more like him; all colleagues of Gopnik.

Let me re-affirm something again.

I don't like Currin's work either - but his sappy, vulgar work is not to be generalized to cover all of contemporary realism, which is generalized as "shopping mall realists...boardwalk caricaturists... or Sunday-painter surrealists."

So it's not just vanguard curators stuck in their offices, art collectors who don't get out much, but also first class, influential art critics, who have clothed Currin as a modern art emperor. You can also fill in any well-known contemporary artist name (Hirst, Barney, Brown, Chapman, Dean, etc.) instead of Currin.

Let's go back over that key paragraph again:

"Within the art world, where Currin's career and reputation have been forged, he can get praise as an original not because he's doing anything new or special but simply because some vanguard curators and collectors don't get out enough. It's as though the elites of contemporary art are so engrossed in their own world that they're not aware of what's already going on in the American mainstream -- at shopping malls, on boardwalks and in Sunday painting classes."

Wouldn't that logic apply to all artists whose career and reputation have been forged within the "art world"?

I'm not sure if Gopnik gets around to visit any of the "third rate galleries" that he mentions in the review - after all, he just reviews museum shows and I don't think that he has the "pulse" of what's going on in art galleries around the nation.

He certainly rarely gets around Washington, DC area art galleries. I can vouch for that!

But spend a few hours in 3rd, 2nd and 1st rate commercial galleries in Los Angeles, or New York, or San Francisco, or London or Madrid, or Washington and you will see a thousand artists still delivering Rothko-like, Pollock-like, Impressionism-like, Pop, and fill-in-the-blank "like" to any style, genre and idea - not just realism.

In fact, visit any of the garbage "galleries" in the malls or Bethesda or La Jolla or any expensive neighborhood, and weep as you see them selling reproduction after reproduction, gyclee, Iris, etc., framed in expensive baroque frames, and you're apt to find anything from Peter Max to Chuck Close to Warhol to Lichtenstein to Rothko to Pollock, etc.

Conclusion: The appetite for cheap, garbage reproduction poster art is not restricted to the genre of realism, or Currin-like images.

In this paragraph Gopnik tips his hand and his disdain for realism and specifically painting:

"Currin fills a perennial void: The American art world, and especially the art market in New York, is forever hoping for an oil-paint messiah -- for someone who will at last restore credibility to old-fashioned realist technique. Ask dealers or curators and they'll tell you that nothing appeals to collectors and the public like figurative oil painting."

I thought that Gerhard Richter was that messiah? Oh wait! he's German, and the dubious undying appeal of realism to make artists into superstars is an American obsession.... wrong!

And even in trendy YBA land, the BBC says that "No modern artist, not even the likes of Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin, divides opinion like Jack Vettriano." Jack Vettriano is, of course, a painter - sort of the John Currin of Great Britain - but much harsher and romantic and sexual - and although this Scottish painter has sold out every single exhibition that he's ever had, apparently all of them within an hour (including one in NYC), and has a waiting list for his next painting of several hundred names, and famous people and celebrities all crave his work, and the British critics hate his work - he enjoys spectacular success in Great Britain and is one of those artists whose reproductions are sold by the millions in the same mall "galleries" that push out the endless Warhols, Maxes and such.

So it's not just a provincial American "thing" to reserve some of our want for a bit of realism in our art - even if most critics despise it - but if the "public" likes it... then it can't be good art.

I suggest that the Post should change this article's headlines from "Plan to Become An American Art Star? Oh, Be a Realist" to "Plan to Become An Art Star? Oh, Be a Realist."

And then the headline would still make absolutely no sense at all - can anyone send me a list of their top ten contemporary art "stars" that includes a majority of realists? What a load of nonsense!

My final thought on this issue. Both Gopnik and I dislike Currin's work.

But Gopnik dislikes it because he dislikes (a) the subject matter, (b) painting and (c) realism. I dislike it because I think that it is the pushing of the ultimate kitsch button by art curators - the perennial search not for a painting messiah, but for a high kitsch messiah to succeed the tired and jaded Jeff Koons.

One thing doesn't make sense to me though.

At Gopnik's "Long Live Realism - Realism is Dead" lecture at the Corcoran, when asked if he had to buy a painting today, what would he buy, he answered: "A reproduction of an old master."

"Oh Come On!," replied the exasperated questioner, "You surely must have one painter that you somewhat like!"

When thus pushed further, Gopnik flashed some slides by Lisa Yuskavage and explained and defended her work using a lot of the same words and logic that critics use to explain and defend Currin's work.

Does this make any sense?

Am I the only one who thinks that both these painters are singing (and painting) the same tune?

Makes my head hurt.

Nevin Kelly Gallery has a group exhibition featuring five works each area artists Sondra Arkin, Allison B. Miner, Thomas Walsh, Robert W. Saunders and Isabel Manalo. Opening reception on Friday, September 17, from 6 to 9p.m.

Allison Miner is quite a talented painter and I am a big fan of her work, so I will try to drop by and see this show, which hangs until October 3, 2004.

Next door to us in Georgetown's Canal Square, our neighbor Parish Gallery has painter Darnella Davis and photographer Phoebe Farris opening a show as part of the 3rd Friday Canal Square openings on Friday, September 17, from 6 to 9p.m.

The DC visual arts season is well underway and my mailbox overfloweth with invitations to new shows at galleries, art spaces, embassies and museums. The gallery season started with the Bethesda Art Walk last Friday, and Options 2005 Curator Philip Barlow was making the rounds in Bethesda.

Read Blake Gopnik's falls preview here and then the full Washington Post's visual arts preview here.

And now that we're underway, next is the Third Thursday Gallery Openings around the 7th Street corridor on Sept. 16 and the next day, the Georgetown gallery openings with the four Canal Square Galleries opening next Friday.

We will host the Washington, DC solo debut of Bay Area photographer Hugh Shurley.

Shurley manipulates photography to create a fascinating blend of the unusual, the odd and the contemporary. His work is in the collection of several public institutions and museums including LACMA.

Shurley was the Best of Show winner at the Second Annual Bethesda International Photography Competition juried by Philip Brookman, Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Opening reception Sept. 17 from 6-9 PM.

Zenith Gallery has Sica, and you can meet the artist on September 17 from 6-9 PM.

That same day, Strand On Volta has the Washington, DC and American debut of Canadian painter Lucy Hogg in a show titled "Sliding Landscapes." Hogg has a gallery talk on October 12 at noon.

And still on the 17th, Cheryl Numark offers "Architecture Untethered." It feautures typical blue chip artists like Isidro Blasco, Robert Lazzarini and others.

And finally, the great, overloaded day delivers a member's reception for Lynn Putney's Meanwhile (While You were Sleeping), where Putney will create one large wall painting on site at DCAC. Putney will have an artist's talk on October 2nd at 4 PM.

The next day, on Saturday, Sept. 18, Transformer presents "sub-TEXT" featuring three generations of Sala Diaz artists with Jesse Amado, Andréa Caillouet and Chuck Ramirez.

And of course, that day is also Arts on Foot between 11:00am and 5:00pm, when Downtown Washington's Pennsylvania Quarter will hold its 12th Annual Arts on Foot Festival.

At Spectrum Gallery, J. Lea Lansaw, whose show opened a while back, has an artist's talk on September 19 at 2:00 PM. The show runs until Sept. 26.

A bit north, the Rockville Arts Place just opened "A Sense of Place," which features three artists conversing on thematic subjects: Prescott Moore Lassman (who is slowly but surely becoming one of the best-known photographers in our area), Constance Bergfor and Neena Birch.

In Dupont Circle, the openings or extended hours take place October 1st from 6-8 PM, and Elizabeth Roberts Gallery showcases Koren-born Philadephia artist Alice Oh, who takes her artistic inspirations from viewing blood cells under a microscope.

In Alexandria, Gallery West presents Deborah Hoeper's show "Soft Views," with an artist reception on Saturday, October 9 from 6-8 PM. A block from there, the Art League showcases contemporary fiber art by Jennifer Coyne Qudeen.

At The Artists' Gallery in Frederick, Maryland, painters Phyllis Jacobs and Doug Moulden have "Off the Wall" opening on Sunday, October 3 from 3-5 PM.

And this is like... one percent of the new shows... see more new shows here.

It's great to be a visual arts lover in DC come September!

"When it comes to swimming against the tide, Olympic gold medals should go to all representational artists. For half a century, they have been almost completely ignored by museums, boycotted by prestigious galleries and scoffed at by critics." Still, a renaissance of figure drawing has been evident for some years, led by countless amateurs and enthusiasts, and embraced by a few diehard pros. But "in a society that values quick and easy success... and when so many galleries and museums prefer to give their space to video art, conceptual art and installation art, why do so many keep struggling to master a skill that art critics insist is anachronistic and old hat? Why this continuing compulsion to draw?"

Please read the entire book review in the New York Times, and then print it and send it to every curator and art critic that you know.

And is this topical to the three Trawick Prize curators! I will make sure that they (a) get a copy of my review once it is published, and (b) a copy of the NY Times piece.

The book by Peter Steinhart is "The Undressed Art: Why We Draw," and it is now on my to-read list.

Thanks to AJ

Today I will be at the Bethesda Artists' Market...

Come by - there will be about 30-40 area artists selling their work...

Yesterday I visited Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda to look at the finalists and the winners of the various awards that are part of the The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards.

This fine arts award is the result of a commitment by a terrific woman and business leader who is dedicated to bringing artistic attention to our area: Carol Trawick.

Maryland, Virginia and District artists are eligible to compete for the prize.

David Page of Baltimore, MD was the Best in Show winner of $10,000. Jeff Spaulding of Bethesda, MD was honored with the second place prize of $2,000 and Randi Reiss-McCormack of Lutherville, MD was awarded the third place prize of $1,000. Marci Branagan of Baltimore, MD received the "Young Artist" award of $1,000 sponsored by the Fraser Gallery.

My congratulations to all the prizewinners.

I cannot say enough good things about Ms. Trawick and the fact that in an area dominated by some of the largest and wealthiest corporations in the world, it has been a small business owner who has taken the challenge of ponying up a considerable annual cash prize to recognize an area artist and hopefully place our area on the national fine arts map. My kudos and applause to all involved in this great effort.

Each year Catriona Fraser, who is the non-voting Chair of the Trawick Prize (and whose idea it was to create the Prize), has the unenviable job of gathering three jurors, one each from Maryland, Virginia and the District, to jury the competition and award the prizes.

The jury members for the competition are Jeffrey W. Allison, Paul Mellon Collection Educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Peter Dubeau, Associate Dean of Continuing Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

This year, the three curators culled these 15 finalists from an entry field of around 400 artists.

And I wish I could have been as quick-witted as Thinking About Art, where Kirkland writes:

"It appears to me that these curators pulled out a handbook titled "How to Jury a Show: The Predictable and Boring Contemporary Way." This handbook, only one page long, likely contains a checklist of types of art that must be in a contemporary art show."

This is funny, but unfortunately correct!

As tempted as I am to say that this exhibition could rank as possibly one of the worst curated group art shows that I have ever seen, I will not do so (ooops! too late!) simply because I recognize that althought I found most of the work boorish, predictable and cookie-cutter contemporary cool "art," I do realize that these are, for the most part, serious, intelligent artists who deeply believe in what they are doing and creating.

My apologies in advance to the artists that I am about to brutalize and my congratulations to the ones that I am about to praise. Remember, it is only my opinion, so please: no hate email.

But I do have an opinion, and in this case there are very few good things that I can and will say about the artwork - although I place the blame for the vapid quality of this show squarely on the shoulders of the three curators, one of whom I know well and who has curated excellent shows in the past, but when working alone and not in a committee curatorial task, as this one was.

Let me start by saying that Graham Caldwell got ripped off. He should have won the Prize and his work was a vast distance ahead of the rest of the field.

Caldwell's entry, titled "Pillows" (to the left) was a trademark piece by this highly talented artist, represented locally by Addison/Ripley Fine Art in Georgetown.

A lovely composition of delicate glass pieces anchored to the gallery wall, it brought forth not only the artist's technical mastery of one of the great remaining fine arts where technical skill is not up for discussion, but also his keen visual creativity. "Pillows" was the best piece in the show.

The winner of the worst piece in the show is easily awarded to John Watson - both of his entries.

Watson currently teaches sculpture and drawing at the University of Maryland and the Maryland College of Art and Design, and with all due respect, both of his entries reminded me of the sort of work that art students do when they wake up on a Friday morning and realize that "Oh Fuck! I have a project due today!" Then I ... uh... they would head to the shool's woodshop and grab a pile of odds and ends from the garbage bin and in about 30 seconds create the project.

Problem was that when I'd bring it -- I mean they'd bring it -- to the class later that day, there would be about half a dozen similar "projects" up for review and a bored art professor rolling his eyes and handing out B plusses to everyone.

Watson's second entry, titled "Orestes" has a bit more work and thought into it... about 116 seconds more I'd reckon; for a total of 146 seconds!

I was sorely tempted to ask the gallery attendant if the shelf supporting "Orestes" was also done by the artist, as the shelf shows some actual wood-working skill, while "Orestes" actually looks like a maquette for the world's sorriest-looking birdhouse.

Then there is J.L. Stewart Watson coming to the rescue to the artistic Watsons of this world. This artist's entry (a huge messy thing titled "Kitchen 300 degrees (Lollipop 192)") I both hated and loved, and thus I reluctantly place it as one of the most successful works in the show.

This Watson has cooked up a huge drippy, melting installation of sugar, corn syrup, water, dye, steel, cast iron, galvanized cable, muslin and assorted hardware to deliver a brutally macabre work that floats back and forth between mind images of a bloody, tortured female figure to more plebian thoughts of "what a mess."

I applaud this Watson for actually having the cojones to put a price of $2,800 on an installation that is essentially melting away and creating a spectacular, syrupy, blood-like mess on the gallery's floor. Ants within a twenty mile radius of Creative Partners Gallery must be at this very moment planning the Sunday attack, when the gallery is closed.

"Kitchen 300 Degrees (Lollipop 192)" is also a good point as to why the Trawick Prize is good for Bethesda area art lovers: It allows them to see the kind of work that is rarely seen in our area, unless one ventures to the wilderness of the Hirshhorn, or to any of the next thousand cool-wanna-be museums that are always so fond of sculptures and installations made of food.

Moving on...

News alert to curators: Video is dead! (unless of course you throw in some real sex like Andrea Fraser).

Fuzzy, static-noisy type video is especially dead, overdone, repeated and spectacularly boring!

And that describes the entry of E. Brandon Morse, titled "Insulary." Morse says the conceptual focus of his work is the "development and portrayal of situations of a specifically vague nature." He gets an A+ for achieving that goal, although I think that he's pulling our leg when he uses the word focus in anything to describe his work.

Surprisingly enough, there were three painters among the fifteen finalists: Daniel Sullivan, Jo Smail, and Randi Reiss-McCormack - I am not familiar with any of them, but note that all three have shown nearly exclusively in Baltimore non-profits such as School 33 and thus they are painters that obviously Peter Dubeau knows well and placed into the finalists. I cannot believe that not a single DC or Virginia painter was selected.

Of the three, Smail (who teaches at MICA, where Dubeau is the Associate Dean of Continuing Studies) is by far the best painter. Her Black Angels with Handkerchiefs, is at first deceptively simple and minimalist. Upon close examination, it reveals quite a skilled painter with a strong command of design and composition as well as painting skills.

I also liked the three pieces by Marie Ringwald, which are these unusual, utilitarian maquettes of buildings and structures that allow Ringwald to get away with solid fields of color under the cover of sculpture.

They are attractive, well-constructed and strangely appealing. The artist says that they "embody hopefulness, possibilities, history and mystery." I don't know about that, but they are certainly a notch above most of the other work selected for this show and visibly stand out by their design and color.

The Best in Show winner's piece (Paradysdonkie, steel, wood, canvas, felt) by Baltimore's David Page is hard to dislike... or to feel passionate about.

Therein lies its failure in my view.

It is modern and contemporary enough... sort of a pommel horse for retired, artsy S&M gymnasts, and certainly does not and would not look out of place in any museum or gallery show of contemporary art, although it may look slightly out of place even in the coolest of post-modernist bachelor pads.

It's not bad; uh... it just doesn't do it for me as Best of Show.

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards is one of the great assets of our area's cultural tapestry, and designed to recognize the best that our area has to offer. Because the prizewinners are selected by museum and academic curators, it has some inherent flaws in the selection process that are very difficult to correct and that every single committee art curating project has. We must applaud, and add, to this prize, and hopefully demand that future curators do a better job of opening their minds to the skill and talent of artists beyond just those that they know intimately.

The way to do this is for museum curators and for school burocrats to get out of their offices and visit galleries and artists' studios and art panels and the such, so that their tunnel art vision is expanded beyond a handful of artists.

Call for Artists

Deadline: Monday, September 27, 2004.

War or Peace at Warehouse Gallery. October 15-November 14, 2004. Opening reception Friday, October 15. One of five Washington exhibitions relating to the theme. All work in War or Peace will be juried from digital images. Juror for two dimensional work is Molly Ruppert, Director of Warehouse Gallery; Juror for sculpture: Judy A. Greenberg, Director of The Kreeger Museum.

Two-dimensional work: Send Jpegs to: RuppertM@erols.com.

Sculpture: Send Jpegs (two views of each work) to: jag@kreegermuseum.org.

Please include in the text of the email the following info:
artist's name
address
phone number
email address
title of work
dimensions
weight (sculpture)
medium
price

There will be no entry or hanging fees but a commission of 20% of all sales will be taken by the gallery.

Maximum dimensions: 9 feet height, 8 or 10 feet width.

Notification by October 4. Further information: email MJ@webworqs.com or molly@warehousetheater.com

In a show surely to stir controversy, GMU professor Chawky Frenn opens tonite at our Bethesda gallery with a show titled "US and Them." Read an excellent profile of Frenn by Dave Jamieson in the current issue of the Washington City Paper here.

The opening reception is from 6-9 PM as part of the Bethesda Art Walk. See you there!

Those of you who know me, also know how much I dislike stereo-typing anything. And this being the first ever visit for me to Omaha (or Nebraska for that matter), guess what is the first thing that greet new arrivals to Omaha's Eppley Field Airport?

Thinking About Art has some pretty potent words both in praise of the Trawick Prize: The Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, and also in criticism of the poor curatorial job done by the three jurors.

As soon as I get back from Cornhuskerland I will go see the show and offer my own comments on the subject, but judging from the photos posted by J.T. about the selected works, I am already finding myself somewhat agreeing with Kirkland.

I'm in Omaha... yep.

On the flight here I read Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss and loved it!

Mora later... on both Omaha and the book.

2005 International Digital Art Awards

Deadline: 30 November 2004.

All artists working in digital media are eligible to enter this competition. The IDAA seeks to present the very best artists working in 2D digital stills and New Media art.

The IDAA was one of the first international awards to present an online and touring hard copy exhibition with publication.

2005 program will also include a fully integrated web conference featuring several leading international artists and academics. The 2005 prize list is extensive and can be viewed online. It is worth mentioning that Epson and DES will be supporting two artists with special printing prizes in the 2D category.

The IDAA is a major award and offers free entry to all artists.

Deadline for entries is 30 November 2004 - Those artists who enter before October 30 will be eligible to win the new G 600 Konica Minolta 6 meg Digital Camera.

Enter at this website.

Jack Vettriano continues to be ignored and snubbed by the British cultural gods, and yet the self-taught ex-miner continues to leave mouths open with his Sotheby's auction sales.

The blunt, chain-smoking ex-miner had this to say about it all.

Today is my birthday.

On the road this week for a visit to Nebraska (don't ask). I will be back on Friday in time for the Bethesda Art Walk and the opening of GMU Professor Chawky Frenn at our Bethesda gallery.

Chawky Frenn is easily one of the most controversial artists in our area. Some of you may recall the noise and complaints that his recent show at Dartmouth University caused, where Frenn out-controversied Damien Hirst, who was also showing at the University at the same time.

A month ago or so, I juried a show from slides for Gallery International in Baltimore.

Last Friday I went to the opening and selected the prize winners. The Best in Show was won by area artist Paul Ellis, while the two awards of excellence went to Spanish-born New York photographer Yolanda del Amo for two-dimensional work and to Andrey Tsers for three-dimensional.

Yesterday the Baltimore Sun's art critic Glenn McNatt had a review of the show. McNatt writes:

"A touch of whimsy

The title of the exhibition at Gallery International, All Media Competition and Show, sounds a bit grandiose, but actually it's as apt as any for this sparkling group show, which brings together 48 artists from far and wide chosen by guest curator F. Lennox Campello.

Campello, a co-owner of the Fraser Gallery in Washington, selected the works on view from the more than 200 entries submitted, and he readily concedes that he followed no formula or format other than his own whimsy in making his choices.

The results, however, are as delightful as they are occasionally surprising. And, true to its title, the show's offerings are divided almost equally among paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed-media works.

There are also quite a few Duchamp-inspired artworks of the buzzing, whirling, mechanical variety, including Wade Kramm's ingenious Candle flipbook, an electric-powered contraption that mimics the flickering motion of an animated cartoon, and Adam Bradley's Dandelion, a weirdly alluring wind-up diorama depicting the soul's reluctant fall from grace.

One of the most polished works in the show is New York-based photographer Yolanda Del Amo's Domestica, a large-scale color photograph mounted on Plexiglas and aluminum that recalls the staged but unforced naturalism of Tina Barney's upper-middle-class domestic dramas. The Spanish-born Del Amo, whose photographs convey a compelling but stubbornly ambiguous narrative thrust, is on the evidence of this work clearly an artist to watch.

The show runs through Sept. 24. The gallery is at 523 N. Charles St. Hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Call 410-230-0561."

Like any juried competition, this was a difficult one to jury, and I struggled for what seemed hours with the Best in Show decision. It could have easily gone to Yolanda del Amo (a RISD graduate), whose photograph is as compelling and sublty seductive as McNatt describes. Her winning entry (Domestica) is pictured above to the left, and it is from a series called "Maids" photographed in Argentina by del Amo. According to one of del Amo's friends who was at the opening (the photographer was not present at the opening), del Amo has been stirring quite a bit of interest in her neck of the woods in N'Yak and could be a photographer to keep an eye on (pun intended).

A while back, the former Art Editor for the British newspaper The Guardian discussed how and why a newspaper should have a high commitment to supporting the arts.

The interesting point in this article by Ian Mayes is that fact that he discloses that between the Guardian and the Observer (owned and run by The Guardian), they employ about 60 art critics backed by a similar number of editors and sub-editors!

And they made a deliberate effort to provide arts coverage in spite of the fact that "...the commitment is not simply or primarily a commercial one. In terms of revenue for the paper, many areas of the arts would not pay for the coverage."

I would guess that our own Washington Post, which has a daily (and shrinking) circulation of around 600,000 printed papers, and gets around two million hits a day for its great website, and owns several other newspapers, is probably about twice the size of the Guardian newspapers combined.

Does anyone want to count the number of Post critics and see if they employ or use more or less than the Guardian?