Thursdays, according to the mid page banner on page two of the Washington Post's Style section, is supposed to focus on Art Galleries and Art News.

Over the last three years or so, the third Thursday of the month has seen the "Galleries" column do a set of mini-reviews, while the "Arts Beat" column, which used to come out every Thursday, has all but disappeared and now comes out every two weeks. I like the mini-review format once a month, but I regret the loss of the weekly "Arts Beat" column.

In today's "Galleries" column Jessica Dawson delivers a set of mini-reviews and reveals that Signal 66, one of her favorite galleries over the years, is closing at the end of the month.

However, much like the cosa nostra kiss she gave the Troyer Gallery when that gallery closed earlier this year, she sends Signal 66 away with:

"After nearly six years mounting some of the city's grittiest art shows, Signal 66 shutters its doors at month's end. More whimper than bang, the final show collects a trio of artists working in the most traditional of all media: paint."

Most commercial galleries close within a year or two; it's a tough business that is best approached realizing that if you decide to open a gallery, then expect to lose money.

Signal 66's folding is somewhat of a surprise though. It had established a good, strong footprint in our area's art scene, and being a cooperative type, artist-run gallery, it had the gallery formula that has allowed this area's longest running commercial art galleries to survive.

In fact, other than Zenith and Kathleen Ewing, I can't think of any commercial art galleries in our area that has been around for 25 years or longer that is NOT a cooperative, artist-run gallery!

Anyway, I will miss Signal 66 and the terrific contribution that they made over the last five years to our area's cultural tapestry.

P.S. By the way there are also three music and one theatre review in today's "Galleries focus" day at the Style section. They actually have more print space than Jessica's review. Does anyone understand why we keep insisting that the Post visual arts coverage sucks? You can complain to Gene Robinson, the Style section editor.

Finally!

The Red Sox spanked those damned Yankees... wouldn't it be great if Houston also won and then we'd have a team from Massachusetts versus a team from Texas!

MA against TX - get it?

Some Coming Shows...

Gallery Neptune presents "Dream Material" new paintings by Gallery Neptune owner Elyse Harrison. The show is on from November 5- December 4, 2004.

Elyse Harrison is one of those artists and arts activisist who has enjoyed a very active and involved career in visual art for the past 25 years. Like me, she's originally from New York, but (unlike me) she was formally educated in the arts in Maryland and Washington, DC and has established even deeper roots in this area by opening Gallery Neptune and Little City Art Studio in Bethesda, now in their 7th year.

The artist's reception will be held on November 12 during the Bethesda Art Walk, from 6-9 PM. An artist's talk is scheduled on December 4 at 5PM. The talk will center on symbols in dreams and visual art.

At Fusebox, Sarah Finlay has Elizabeth Fisher curating a show by Terence Gower, Ulrike Heydenriech, Cynthia Lin, Joan Linder and Nicola Lopez.

The gallery's project space in the rear has Vincent Szarek's second Fusebox show, and Szarek explores more visual representations of the American flag.

Both exhibitions open on November 6 through December 18, 2004. The reception for the artists will be on November 6 from 6-8 PM.

It takes a New Yorker, in this case Todd Gibson at From The Floor, to discover and point out a really good new art BLOG in nearby Richmond. Go visit ANABA, by Martin Bromirski.

Say it isn't so...

It has nothing to do with visual arts, but it breaks my heart to report that Ionarts lets the bad news out of the bag in reporting that the Washington National Opera's world famous leader and supreme tenor, Placido Domingo, is being considered to become the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Read it and weep.

I'll be at the Corcoran tonite for the opening reception of the Common Ground: Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art, Selections from the Collection of Julia J. Norrell exhibition before rushing home to watch the Red Sox disappoint their fans once again.

Having been raised in Brooklyn and been schooled as a rabid Met fan, I hate the damned Yankees, but know that the Red Sox are doomed to once again stab their fans in the heart.

Tyler Green at MAN picks up the Philip Barlow controversy and makes some important points. Click here to read it.

And Kriston at Grammar.police also picks up the story.

Like Tyler Green says, expect stories on this issue by Chris Shott in tommorrow's edition of the Washington City Paper and by Jonathan Padget the Washington Post's "Arts Beat" column tomorrow.

I keep forgetting to link to the great review by the other Gopnik (Blake Gopnik that is), of the brilliant Ana Mendieta retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum.

I went to the press preview last week and I am working on a review that will be published (once translated) in a dozen Latin American newspapers. I will also have it in English here.

Anyway, Gopnik is eloquent as usual in treating and placing Mendieta into the important high art context in which she truly belongs. If you go to see one museum show this year - this is it!

Blake also earned me $100, as I had made a bet at the Mendieta show opening reception last Wednesday, with a curator friend of mine, that Gopnik would use the description vagina dentata somewhere in the review.

K'Chiiing!

P.S. I intend to use vagina dentata as well; it's just the perfect descriptor of Mendieta's artwork.

More Insight into the Barlow Firing

Anyone who has been reading DC Art News or Thinking About Art or DCist, knows that James W. Bailey has taken the firing of Philip Barlow, first discussed here on October 13, to heart.

So on October 18, Bailey wrote David Levy, the Director of the Corcoran, a 1,444 word, three-page letter on the subject, expressing his outrage. This correspondence, and the responses by Levy, add some perspective to the whole controversy. Read Bailey's letter here.

Dr. Levy responded immediately, and sent Bailey this email.

Oh dear...

If you know James W. Bailey, then you know that not only is he a terrific photographer, but also an incredibly passionate and verbose all-around good guy. So Bailey responded with a 2,751 word email the next day! Read it here.

And again Dr. Levy responds on the same day with this email.

And the final note from Bailey is here.

Annie Adjchavanich, who is the Executive Director of the WPA/C, today emailed a press release about the firing of Philip Barlow as the curator from OPTIONS 2005:

On September 23rd, 2004, an article appeared in the Arts Beat page of The Washington Post in which Philip Barlow, Guest Curator of the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran (WPA\C) Options exhibition, stated personal viewpoints and opinions that are in no way reflective of the exhibitions goals nor the WPA\C’s mission. In stating that he would categorically exclude any and all artists who participated in either the city-wide Party Animals or PandaMania programs of the last two years from consideration for Options, he has violated basic ethical norms of curatorial practice, which is in direct conflict with the Corcoran’s policy on Freedom of Artistic Expression, and subsequently the WPA\C’s, mission statement.

While it is the responsibility of a curator to exercise both professional and personal judgment in the selection of works of art, this process must be based upon the artistic merit and suitability of the works in question to the themes or purposes of an exhibition or its related materials. It is inappropriate to base curatorial decisions upon the political, social or intellectual opinions an artist may hold, upon an artist’s personal behavior, personal life, or relationship to the curator or to the institution.

The leadership of the WPA\C believes that Mr. Barlow has irreparably compromised his credibility as curator of this exhibition and respectfully accepts his decision to step away from the project and his responsibility as curator.

An announcement regarding the selection of a curator for Options will be forthcoming.

Annie Adjchavanich
Executive Director

Adam Gopnik at the Corcoran Tomorrow

Blake Gopnik's brother Adam, who is an award winning writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1986, and wrote a best-seller about the years that he and his family spent in Paris (Paris to the Moon), has a new book out and will be discussing it at the Corcoran tomorrow at 7:00 PM.

Adam Gopnik's new book is Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology and it is a compilation of selections from three centuries of distinguished American writing about the French capital.

People who are professors at most major Universities are generally expected to be very active in their field. They are usually expected to do research, to publish, to participate, etc. This is often a requirement in order for them to become tenured.

Are art professors under a different set of rules?

When I was an art student at the University of Washington School of Art, in beautiful Seattle, nearly all of the professors that taught there, people like Jacob Lawrence, Alden Mason, Frances Calentano and others all had one thing in common: they exhibited their work regularly and were a vibrant part of Seattle's great art gallery scene.

With a few notable exceptions, when I visit area universities to look at student shows (which I do regularly), I often look up the names of the faculties at these same schools and I often encounter names that I do not recognize.

Nothing unusual there, but it would seem to me, that as a person who visits 25-30 gallery shows a month, plus receives over 100 invitations to openings every month, that I should be able to recognize a high percentage of the names in our area's art schools' faculties.

So, just for fun I am going to look up a few art faculties from some of our area colleges, and see if I can figure out where they are exhibiting, or have exhibited, or plan to exhibit.

And if I can't find that information, then I will take it as a 21st century negative mark in the sense that if you are an art professor, you should have a good, solid Internet footprint.

I'll start with the Maryland Institute College of Art, one of the best art schools in the nation.

In two clicks I can find this impressive page about MICA's faculty. Question: 231+ people in the faculty? WOW! That's a lot!

MICA gets an A+ for their Faculty listing (A-K here and L-Z here).

And in these faculty listings I find some good things and also some holes. For example, one of the persons teaching Foundation courses' most recent exhibition was in 1995! Compare that to Timothy App (whose work I know and recognize). He has a solid and consistent exhibition record; however, App does not seem to have a website. Perhaps MICA just needs to pay more attention to updating their faculty's resumes online.

Some of the Faculty Directory listings have links to the teacher's websites. But MICA needs to augment this directory with a link to every single art teacher that has a website. And if any of them does not have a website... then that tells me something, doesn't it?

MICA boasts some very well-known names in their faculty listing. People like my good friend Joe Shannon, Jyung Mee Park (no website that I can find), Raoul Middleman, Connie Imboden, Trawick Prizewinner Richard Cleaver and many others.

So MICA gets a passing grade, but they really need to stay on top of the website and update it, and definately link it to the person's web presence.

Thinking About Art has an excellent gallery crawl set of small but insightful reviews of several DC gallery shows.

Zoe Myers is looking to open a new gallery in the Greater Washington area and is looking for space. She'd like about 2,500 square feet, preferably nearby the new gallery concentration around 14th Street, but she's willing to look anywhere.

If anyone has any leads on available space, email me.

I am still unpacking from my move, and still re-discovering stuff. When I was in my teens, this sunny poem below was my favorite poem. It is "Song of a Mad Minstrel" by Robert E. Howard. Allow me to share it with you:

I am the thorn in the foot, I am the blur in the sight;
I am the worm at the root, I am the thief in the night.
I am the rat in the wall, the leper that leers at the gate;
I am the ghost in the hall, herald of horror and hate.

I am the rust on the corn, I am the smut on the wheat,
Laughing man’s labor to scorn, weaving a web for his feet.
I am canker and mildew and blight, danger and death and decay;
The rot of the rain by night, the blast of the sun by day.

I warp and wither with drouth, I work in the swamp’s foul yeast;
I bring the black plague from the south and the leprosy in from the east.
I rend from the hemlock boughs wine steeped in the petals of dooms;
Where the fat black serpents drowse I gather the Upas blooms.

I have plumbed the northern ice for a spell like Frozen lead;
In lost grey fields of rice, I learned from Mongol dead.
Where a bleak black mountain stands I have looted grisly caves;
I have digged in the desert sands to plunder terrible graves.

Never the sun goes forth, never the moon glows red,
But out of the south or the north, I come with the slavering dead.
I come with hideous spells, black charms and ghastly tunes;
I have looted the hidden hells and plundered the lost black moons.

There was never a king or priest to cheer me by word or look,
There was never a man or beast in the blood-black ways I took.
There were crimson gulfs unplumbed, there were black wings over a sea;
There were pits where mad things drummed, and foaming blasphemy.

There were vast ungodly tombs where slimy monsters dreamed,
There were clouds like blood-drenched plumes where unborn demons screamed.
There were ages dead to Time, and lands lost out of Space;
There were adders in the slime, and a dim unholy Face.

Oh, the heart in my breast turned stone, and the brain froze in my skull-
But I won through, I alone, and I poured my chalice full
Of horrors and dooms and spells, black buds and bitter roots-
From the hells beneath the hells, I bring you my deathly fruits.

Sunday Morning Round-Up

About 25 NoMA (North of Massachusetts Avenue) artists have open studios today. Some of the artists include Stuart Gosswein, Ira Bloom (metal sculpture), Kim Dutton (painting), Steve Litwin (sculpture), Mimi Masse (sculpture), Joe McKenna (painting & drawing) and others. The studios are in four separate buildings located at 443 I Street, NW (Second Floor), 52 O Street NW, 57 N Street NW and 411 New York Ave. NE. From 12-5 PM. Free and Open to the public.

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Today is the second and final day of the Bethesda Row Arts Festival. Over 170 artists. I'll be there. From 11-5 PM. Free and Open to the public.

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Today is the last day of Art Baltimore, which is on at the Baltimore Convention Center's Exhibit Hall E (Entrance from Pratt Street). Over 150 national, regional and emerging artists from 38 states and Canada are exhibiting.

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The Art-O-Matic link for artists to register is finally working! Sign up here.

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Washington Printmakers Gallery has a silent auction coming next Sunday. See the auction details here. The auction is Friday October 29 2004. 5-9pm, RSVP to Jenny Freestone.

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Linda Hesh's "Art Ads" will be appearing in the Washington Post as small ads in the main national and world news section. On Tuesday, October 19th, the interracial couple ad will appear, and the gay couple ad will appear on Tuesday, October 26th. The New York Times refused to place "these ads because their policy is that all advocacy ads must clearly state and opinion, and their opinion is that "these do not. The Times has no other category for the ads to fit into, so they will not be seen in the Times.

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On Tuesday, October 26, 2004, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington (16th & P Streets, NW), the Walker Whitman Clinic will be having their annual Art for Life Auction, in my opinion one of the best art auctions in the city. Viewing from 6:00 pm and the auction starts at 7:30 pm.

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DCAC has a benefit reception on Friday, October 22nd from 7-9pm. Tickets: $30, includes a new membership to DCAC, which is a terrific deal! The exhibition, curated by Vivienne Lassman, honors Washington, DC Noche Crist's memory. Crist recently passed away.

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The artists whose "Funky Furniture" exhibition was cancelled by the City Museum will be removing their artwork from the museum and then conducting a protest outside the Museum on Monday, October 18 from 6-8 PM. Directions to the museum are here. Support to the artists is encouraged!

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Marsha Stein will be having an artists and interested parties meeting at Karma Restaurant on Monday, October 18, 2004 from 6-8 PM to discuss her City Museum of Washington Art Project.

Back from the first day of the Bethesda Row Arts Festival. The wind and rain had a negative effect today; a wind gust broke about six framed pieces. The crowds were good though.

I did sell two small drawings and two etchings and one large drawing.

Tomorrow is the last day for the Festival. I'll be there again.

Today and tomorrow I will be at the Bethesda Row Arts Festival in booth 31E, located on Elm Street. If you are in the area, come by and say hello.

Tonight was the opening night for the Canal Square Galleries and it was somewhat diluted by the rain (good pun uh?).

Still... I got the chance to meet J.T. Kirkland, author of Thinking About Art and his lovely date, as well as to chat with Philip Barlow, who seemed a little worn out about the whole OPTIONS 2005 controversy (more articles in the Washington City Paper and Washington Post to come in the next few days), but firm in his beliefs nonetheless. My kudos to Barlow for sticking to his beliefs.

Today's Washington City Paper has a letter from Alex Belifante, where this smart, art-gallery-food-eating-machine defends himself. Belifante is one of the "grubs."

By the way, the grubs" came out to the openings tonite, and most of them came, drank, ate and left, but I didn't see Belifante and Coxe come into the gallery; I hope they're not mad at me (what am I saying!).

Today is the 3rd Friday of October and thus the five Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown have their new shows. Openings are from 6-9 PM and are catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant, also located in the Canal Square (31st Street and M in Georgetown).

We will have the DC debut of Bay Area figurative painter Douglas Malone, Best of Show winner of the 2003 Georgetown International Fine Arts Competition.

Many of the artists will be present in the five galleries. We will also have plenty of our famous Sangria. Free and open to the public.

See you there!