Nevin Kelly, director and owner of the Nevin Kelly Gallery, whose Top 10 AOM list I posted earlier, sends in this thoughtful comment on AOM:

"I was really impressed by Art-o-Matic, awful art and everything. Gopnik clearly missed the point. Kudos to you for your blog. The event was perfect for sparking the discussion over "what is art?" and "what right does an artist (or self-perceived artist) have to exhibit?" The sheer energy of the event was art in itself. For a city that is not known elsewhere for its artistic community, this is truly a spectacular contribution."

Nevin Kelly's Top 10 Artomatic List

Nevin Kelly, director and owner of the Nevin Kelly Gallery walks Art-O-Matic and sends in a AOM Top 10 List. For disclosure purposes, Kelly states that the gallery currently represents Allison B. Miner and Sondra N. Arkin, and that Dylan Scholinski and Kelly have plans to cooperate in a 2005 exhibition.

Nevin Kelly Gallery Art-O-Matic Top 10 Picks

Sondra N. Arkin
Allison B. Miner
Dylan Scholinski
Ellyn Weiss
Christopher Edmunds
Michal Hunter
Kathryn Cornelius
Mary Beth Ramsey
Joyce Zipperer
Robert Cole

Honorable Mention

Scott Brooks
Will Winton
Joroko
Dns Ynko
Tom Wells
Lisa Shumaeir
Abby Freeman
Louise Kennelley
John Adams
Inga McCaslin Frick

Opportunities from WPA/C

The WPA/C has a couple of events coming up that should be of interest.

First of all, the WPA/C concept of ANONYMOUS returns with an opening preview reception on Thursday, Dec. 9, 6:30-8:30pm and the first day to purchase artwork is Friday, Dec. 10, 6-8pm.

This is a second installment of this popular show concept featuring all new artists and curators. 100 artists create two feet by two feet works of art to be sold for $500 each. Buyers will not know the artist until the work has been purchased. No works will be sold at the preview reception and only one piece is allowed per patron. Curated by: John Aaron, K.B. Basseches, Mary Del Popolo, Djakarta, Chawky Frenn, David Jung, Prescott Moore Lassman, Anne Marchand, Marie Ringwald and Alan Simensky.

Location: 1027 33rd Street, NW (Georgetown)
Times: Thursday & Friday 12pm-8pm
Saturday & Sunday 12pm-6pm

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WPA/C OPTIONS 2005 Call for Artists

The WPA/C has the website for submitting works to be considered for OPTIONS 2005 ready. Visit the website here. The deadline is January 14, 2005.

Marsha Stein Art Project

Marsha Stein's art project is gathering attention from a lot of artists and some press and is being filmed for a potential "reality TV" series about art.

The next meeting for interested artists is at Fraser Gallery Bethesda tomorrow Monday, November 22 at 7pm.

Interested artists should contact Marsha Stein at Marshasart@aol.com.

Today I will be at the Rockville Arts Place as part of the The Artist and the Internet: A Panel Discussion from 1 to 2:30PM.

The panel is comprised of Malik Lloyd, publisher of FindArt Info Bank, web designer and artist Todd Baxter Dawson and yours truly.

The discussion will focus on ways in which artists can use the Internet as a valuable resource for information, community and self promotion.

The Panel discussion will preceed the opening of the exhibit "Minimum/Maximum" that same afternoon. The exhibition features work by Trawick Prize finalist Jo Smail.

The panel is free to Rockville Arts Place members and $10 to everyone else.

Commercial Galleries and Artomatic

We have decided to host a dual gallery show next January for the combination of my Top Ten List and Catriona Fraser's Top 10 List.

So we've re-shuffled our 2005 schedule a little bit and invited the following artists, and those who accept will be included in a dual gallery show at Fraser Gallery Georgetown and Fraser Gallery Bethesda concurrently during January 2005.

BJ Anderson
Joseph Barbaccia
John Bata
Margaret Dowell
Matt Dunn
Chris Edmunds
Thomas Edwards
M. Rion Hoffman
Michal Hunter
Michael Janis
Mark Jenkins
Syl Mathis
Allison B. Miner
Mary Beth Ramsey
Alison Sigethy
Ira Tattleman
Denise Wolff
Tim Tate

Separately from this exhibition, I am working with a few other commercial galleries that have stepped forward and volunteered their spaces, including the Anne C. Fisher Gallery, the new galleryconnect and Gallery Neptune to try to work out concurrent exhibitions of the "final" Artomatic Top Ten List, which will be compiled mathematically from all the lists that I have been getting from curators, critics and art dealers.

These other galleries have expressed interest in hosting a gallery show for the Artomatic artists listed in various Top Ten Lists here and as a result of my observations to the effect of the interesting coalescing of names from the various lists.

Any other commercial galleries, non-profits or art venues interested in this future AOM follow-up event, email me.

Anne C. Fisher's Top 10 Artomatic List

Anne C. Fisher is the director of the Anne C. Fisher Gallery in Georgetown. She sends me her Artomatic favorites with asterisks for top ten. The list is ordered alphabetically, not in order of preference.

* Chad Alan
* Jean Beebe
Elena C. Bland
* Jennifer Morgan Brill
* Aaron Quinn Brophy
Andrea Cybyk
Thomas Edwards
* eyecandy (Ian Allen, Allen B. Callander, Ian Jehle, Joan Topping)
Claudia Feldman
Pattie Porter Firestone
* Linda Hesh/Ami Martin Wilber
IDB Cultural Center Group
Judy Jashinsky
* Amy Marx
* Minna Newman Nathanson
Martha Olsson
* Mary Beth Ramsey
Kim Reyes
* G. Byron Peck
Lisa Schumaier
Luis Scotti (promising student)
Sunray (Ray Jacobs) (stated as personal healing through art)
Ira Tattelman
Colin Winterbottom

Claudia Rousseau's Artomatic Top Picks List

Dr. Claudia Rousseau is the art critic for the Gazette newspapers and while she lived in Latin America she was also one of the most recognized and respected Latin American newspaper art critics.

Dr. Rousseau visited Art-O-Matic and has the following list of her top picks:

1. Alison Sigethy
2. Mary Beth Ramsey
3. Chris Edmunds
4. Tim Tate
5. Michael Janis
6. Tiik Pollet
7. Syl Mathis
8. Inga McCaslin Frick
9. J.S. Adams
10. luckyghost (anonymous author of the Mysterious Bottles Project)

also noted by Dr. Rousseau were:

Joyce Zipperer
Richard Dana
John Olson
Adam Hoffberg
Shannon Chester

Rockville Arts Place Hosts Arts Panel on Sunday

The Rockville Arts Place will be hosting The Artist and the Internet: A Panel Discussion tomorrow, Sunday 21 November from 1 to 2:30PM.

The panel is comprised of Malik Lloyd, publisher of FindArt Info Bank, web designer and artist Todd Baxter Dawson and yours truly.

The discussion will focus on ways in which artists can use the Internet as a valuable resource for information, community and self promotion. I have been surprised as to the large number of Artomatic artists who have made it to various people's Top 10 List and yet have no website or footprint on the Web.

The Panel discussion will preceed the opening of the exhibit "Minimum/Maximum" that same afternoon. The exhibition features work by Trawick Prize finalist Jo Smail.

The panel is free to Rockville Arts Place members and $10 to everyone else.

Lou Stovall, Donna Oetzel and Daniel T. Brooking all have letters in today's Washington Post discussing Blake Gopnik's rootcanalization of Artomatic.

Brooking writes:

"As one of Artomatic's mediocre artists, I have to say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I joined Artomatic because the work is not juried or censored. The great thing is that anyone can join and have their work displayed without having someone's prejudiced, narrow-minded precepts attempt to determine the worthiness of another's creativity.

Many of the established schools of art started out as a revolt against the status quo. Artomatic offers a range of art styles and mediums; I encourage the public to come out and see what is offered. Some of the work you'll like and some you won't, but you won't go away bored. It's been a long time since I've seen such vehemence in a review."

Please discover Weirdcurves. I just did and it is a welcome addition to the DC area arts BLOGsphere!

The Artomatic visit is here.

James W. Bailey's Art-O-Matic List

You didn't expect James W. Bailey to just send me a list of his top ten artists from Art-O-Matic, did you? Here is Bailey's list, at nearly 2,000 elegant and passionate words:

James W. Bailey’s Top List of Angels and Devils Working the Mystery of God in Art-O-Matic 2004

Art-O-Matic 2004 – A Mississippi-style Juke Joint of Art

The Religion of the Juke Joint

"The juke joints in Mississippi are the only place in the state where God and the Devil get equal time." James Edward Bailey, my great-grandfather.

"I’ve been to Art-O-Matic 2004 and I’ve been Slain in the Spirit. There are angels and devils working mischief in that building and thank God for it." James W. Bailey.

What does it mean to be Slain in the Spirit?

Being slain is a phenomenon that is sweeping through many Pentecostal-Charismatic churches in the South today. When "slain" people are knocked on the floor unconscious, some shake, some laugh, or lay paralyzed unable to move. Many Charismatic leaders are teaching that believers need to experience the "slaying" often. However, there are some reported extreme manifestations of this behavior where some "slain" individuals have stripped and exhibited lewd behavior. A few churches have even organized patrols to monitor their congregations because of the high amount of sexual immorality that has been manifested.

So the question is this: is being "slain" a God thing?

Catfish Alley – A Young Mississippi Boy’s Perspective on Cutting Edge Art

I was born and raised in a small, quiet genteel Mississippi town called Columbus. My hometown is famous for two things:

1. Being the birth place of Tennessee Williams.

2. Having a treasure trove collection of Ante-Bellum Greek Revival Plantation Mansions that were never destroyed during the Civil War because the Yankees decided at the last second to attack and destroy a nearby town called West Point.

As a young boy, however, the thing that interested me more than anything else in my hometown was the Black Culture and Music that was to be found in a blacks-only business and Juke Joint district called Catfish Alley; Catfish Alley was off-limits to whites. Whites partied in their bars and blacks partied in their Juke Joints and the two cultures never dared cross that racial line.

My father, however, was a fireman and I used to visit the mysterious and wild Juke Joints of Catfish Alley with him when he would make annual fire inspections.

The African-American community found its niche and prospered in Catfish Alley. Former post-Civil War era servants developed their own businesses and civic life from the part of town known as "Catfish Alley," which is actually a block on 4th Street South between College Street and Main Street.

According to the late Dr. E.J. Stringer, a Columbus, Mississippi, civil rights leader, politician, minister and dentist, Catfish Alley was the hub of activity for rural blacks who came into town to sell fresh vegetables and the catfish they caught along the way.

"Long before the 1940s, there were provisions to either sell the catfish uncooked, or cook it on the spot and sell it by the plate. When it was cooked, the aroma of the catfish filled the air, thus the name ‘Catfish Alley’. As long as I can remember, Catfish Alley served as a place where laborers gathered for transportation provided by employers, and it was a place where people congregated to talk and to exchange news and ideas. It was the site of black-owned businesses and professional offices, and a place for people who made a difference in the black community." Dr. E. J. Stringer.

Dr. Stringer, who once had his dental office in "The Alley," said that his greatest desire was to see people get along; to achieve oneness of community. He died in 1995.

When I was 8 years old I walked into a Juke Joint in Catfish Alley with my father on a fire inspection and was first Slain in the Spirit when I saw the most amazing collection of Mississippi African-American outsider and folk art that was hanging from every square inch of available wall space.

I had never seen anything like it. Standing in the presence of this incredible collection of art produced by people I had never heard off, featuring imagery I had never seen, left me breathless. I had never been exposed to the voices and imagination of black people in my home state in such a personal, powerful and emotive way. I knew that God was working through the people who created this art to send a message to the world. I stood there transfixed trying to understand what God was saying through these works of art.

The Blues of Art

Down in Mississippi, we have a saying, "You ain’t heard it if you ain’t listened to it." In the world of Blues music what this means is this: If you think you’re listening to the real Blues when you pay $500 for a scalped ticket to an intimate plush venue to hear an English "blues" guitarist sing the "blues" while you and your date sip on Heinekens, then you ain’t really ever heard the real Blues.

To hear the real deal, you’re gonna need to slip back in time, wind your way down South to Mississippi and find a Juke Joint. The real Blues is played by people you’ve never heard of: Musicians and singers like, "Preacher Peacock" Morgan, David "Three-Strings" Jones, Bill "Sunday School" Taylor, Johnny "T-Rex" Martin, etc. These people never had a recording contract, never cut a record, but played their hearts and souls out at Juke Joints that have long disappeared. But people did hear them, though. I am one who bears witness to voices of Angels.

Art-O-Matic 2004 – I Went Down Into The Diamond Mine To Find A Diamond And Discovered The Rough Instead

Art-O-Matic is a Mississippi-style Juke Joint of a Diamond Mine of Art. Sure, there’s a lot of rough stuff there; and there are some diamonds. But the rough stuff gives birth to the diamonds, not the other way around.

Lenny has mentioned that he has noticed a lot of the Top Ten Lists are gravitating toward a common theme. I have noticed that as well. That troubles me. It’s too easy to go into a diamond mine and shift the chafe for the wheat and pick out the diamonds that fall easily to the bottom of the basket.

No disrespect to the creators of the diamonds, many of whom I know and respect, but their diamonds have already been, for the most part, presented in the sanctuary of the white cube space. I climbed down into the diamond mine looking for the raw energy, the troubling elements, the fractured particles and the substance of the rough stuff that gives birth to the diamonds.

Walking into Art-O-Matic 2004 sent me reeling in the years back to being 8 years old and walking into that Juke Joint in Catfish Alley in Columbus, Mississippi. I found art and artists that I know God has spoken through.

I wasn’t looking for the diamonds to develop my list. I was looking for the Devil Himself to jump right out of a whiskey bottle and pop up in my face and dare me to drink that bottle. The works of the artists who have made my list did just that.

To have a personal conversation with God you have got to first dance with the Devil. These artists have put their vision ahead of every other consideration and have walked with the Devil and talked with the Lord.

I could have easily chosen another group to list. I went with the powerfully spiritual feeling that overwhelmed me with those works I saw during my two visits.

Most of these artists I don't know and have never heard of. A few I do know. One young woman, whose name I will not name out of respect for her privacy, has already tasted the sting of censorship with two beautiful nude photographs in a recent regional exhibition. Her two photographs in question are on exhibit at Art-O-Matic. Art-O-Matic is to be commended for supporting the exhibition of challenging works of art.

The Devil will not silence these artists.

If you’re looking for diamonds, they are some to be found at Art-O-Matic. If you’re looking, and willing, to explore deep into subterranean world of local art, you will see some amazing stuff.

For those artists, art critics, social critics, critic critics and others who spend more time destroying than creating, know that part of my Scots-Irish Mississippi personality wants to engage you in an endless debate over the merits of Art-O-Matic.

Indeed, I do have certain issues myself. But they related to organizational issues. I believe Art-O-Matic needs to become a artist member not for profit 501(c)3 organization because I believe the enormous energy of the artists who are so passionate about this event needs to be brought together in a more effective way to sustain, market and promote the event.

But for those relentless critics of Art-O-Matic who will never be satisfied, another part of my personality wants to just say what we say in the beautiful Magnolia State when we are just plain worn-out arguing with knuckle-heads over their stupidity. We cut them off with a big Rebel Yell and scream, "Fuck all Ya’ll!"

I offer my following list in the revolutionary spirit of radical anarchist activist, Abbie Hoffman, of "Steal This Book" fame.

I dedicate my list to the vision and integrity of Philip Barlow. May Mr. Barlow’s vision for OPTIONS 05 be presented sometime, somewhere, somehow. If I have selected just one artist who might represent just a particle of Mr. Barlow’s vision for OPTIONS 05, then I have done something important.

Steal This Art Today List! - The following artists present work worth the minimum risk of a serious art collector being charged with felony grand theft in their efforts to steal work from right out underneath the nose of the artist because these works show great potential of future increases in value. If you’re an asshole art collector, get the work of these artists now and pray the artist commits suicide in a very tragic and high-profile public fashion, thus driving up the value of your collection. These works are insanely under-priced for value. For those art collectors who care about deeper issues with the art they buy, know this: These artists are talking with God. Their conversations with Him are interesting.

My list is in alphabetic order, like the way my momma taught me. I choose the following:

Chuck Baxter
Shannon Chester
J. Coleman
Teresa Ghiglino
N. John Grunwell
R. Will Helms
Dale Hunt
M. Erin Hunter
G. Rashia Linendoll
M. Lisa McCarty
M. Iver Olson
Stefanie Pierpoint
Megan Raines
J. Kim Reyes
A. Bailey Rosen
D. Lisa Schumaier
Luis Scotti
Anna Shakeeva

To all the participating artists of Art-O-Matic 2004, I say stay true unto yourself and unto your vision.

Rock The Art!

James W. Bailey

Experimental Mississippi Photographer

Michael O'Sullivan reviews Art-O-Matic

O'Sullivan once more demonstrates that he has a finger on the pulse of the DC art scene and does so well in this review of Artomatic in today's Washington Post.

O'Sullivan touches a chord that had escaped me, in answering the question to of why so many artists of all talents and aspirations do this show:

"Or maybe, just maybe, you did it because, for just this once, there wasn't anyone telling you that you couldn't."

Bravo O'Sullivan!

Thinking About Art's Top 10 Artomatic List

JT over at Thinking About Art finally delivers his Top 10 Art-O-Matic list; he also makes a good point about most photography at the show.

B.J. Anderson
Richard Dana
Christopher Edmunds
Thomas Edwards
Linda Hesh
Syl Mathis
Allison B. Miner
Tim Tate
Kelly Towles
Rob Vander Zee

You read it here first

Glenn Dixon, the talented and opinionated writer who co-shared the "Galleries" column in the Washington Post (with Jessica Dawson) has quit because of an undisclosed dispute with the paper.

Canal Square Georgetown Openings Tonight

Tonight is the third Friday of the month, which means two things:

(a) It is the opening for the new shows of the five Canal Square Galleries in Georgetown. The galleries (Alla Rogers, Fraser, Parish, MOCA and Anne C. Fisher) will have their new shows and openings from 6-9PM. The openings are catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant and are free and open to the public.

(b) It will either rain, snow or one of those manhole covers will blow up in one of the nearby streets and the streets will be closed (this has happened three times in the last 18 months: each time on an opening night!)

See you there tonight!

And then tomorrow, join members of the "Girlz Club" at Artomatic for a tribute to Ana Mendieta.

"Girlz Club" members will make a silueta of pine cones and then paint leaves with a mixture of their blood and paint.

The tribute will on on Saturday, November 20th at Sunset on the grounds of Art-O-Matic. Follow the signs to the NW corner between the two big maple trees.

Artists to Meet on Monday

Marsha Stein's art project is getting a lot of attention and is being filmed for a potential "reality TV" series about art.

The next meeting for interested artists is at Fraser Gallery Bethesda on Monday, November 22 at 7pm.

Interested artists should contact Marsha Stein at Marshasart@aol.com.

New Gallery in Town

Galleryconnect is the new gallery space at 2103 O Street, NW in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. The gallery is currently showing "First Exposure," which is an exhibition curated by Lana Lyons, Director of the Studio Gallery.

The exhibition features Chandi Kelley and Rob Saccardi in their gallery debut. The show goes through December 19, 2004.

Jeffry Cudlin reviews Dan Flavin in the current issue of the City Paper, and Lou Jacobson dismisses Chan Chao's new (but really his old) work at Numark.

Chris Shott in the WCP has a really good article on the costs of staging Artomatic.

So far they are $56,197 in the hole.

Time for one of our area's generous donors or billion dollar corporations to step up to the plate?

Maybe the Washington Post?

I like irony.