Top 10 DC Area Art Shows of the Year

I had such an overwhelming response to my call for Artomatic Top 10 artists, that I thought that it may be fun to also have a call for readers' Top 10 DC area art shows.

I will have my top 10 listed soon.

Email me your Top 10 list and I'll post them here. I'd like to restrict the list to the Greater Washington area galleries and museums and other visual arts spaces.

A couple of Florida opportunities for artists

Since I was just there...

Deadline: December 3, 2004
The John S & James L Knight Foundation seeks work for permanent installation at the foundation's Miami headquarters. A total of 26 works will be selected, corresponding to each of the communities where the Knight brothers operated newspapers. For submission guidelines contact: Steven F Greenwald Design.

Deadline: December 3, 2004
The Fifth Annual Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition, a joint project of Polk Museum of Art and the City of Lakeland, is accepting submissions for a Public Art exhibition in downtown Lakeland. Open to sculptors working in North America. Ten works will be accepted and will receive $1,000 to offset transportation expenses. $3,000 Best of Show. Deadline is December 31, 2004. Non-refundable $15 entry fee.

Artists should submit labeled slides of up to three completed works, with 2-3 views of each work, along with a resume, and one paragraph artist statement. Electronic submissions will be accepted via email or PC compatible CD. Images must be in .jpg format, no larger than 600 pixels wide at 72 dpi; and artist statement should be in plain text, Word, or .pdf format.

Send all materials to: Polk Museum of Art, Att: Outdoor Sculpture Competition, 800 E Palmetto St, Lakeland FL 33801-5529. No incomplete works or project proposals will be considered. All works must be able to be anchored to concrete and maintenance free for the duration of the exhibit. For full prospectus/further details, visit this website or call 863-688-7743 ext. 289.

There's an old Henny Youngman joke that goes like this:

I just flew in from Miami... boy are my arms tired!

Anyway, back in town; came straight from the airport to my opening at Fraser Gallery Georgetown. Thanks to all of you who came down and said hi and also thanks to those who bought some work!

Anyway... a couple of good online links:

One of the reader's of Jesse Cohen's excellent ArtDC reports on one of the art casualties of the baseball move to DC. Read it here.

Jesse, in a separate thread, asks the question: Should blogs follow the rules of journalism? Read all the interesting comments here.

And in today's Post, Michael O'Sullivan has a nice review of Alex Bay's terrific sculptural show currently at our neighbor MOCA. There's a couple of spectacular wall pieces in this show that ought to go directly to one of our area's museums.

Kelly Towles, whose work appeared in quite a few of the Artomatic lists, also opened tonight at David Adamson. This should be a good show to visit. This is the second (that I know of) of quite a few Artomatic artists' exhibitions that are mushrooming all over the city. And last week Jan Sherfy opened at Delila Katzka Fine Art.

JT Kirkland, over at Thinking About Art has a great opportunity for artists to discuss their work through the Ellipse Arts Center's space in Arlington. Read about it here.

I'm flying back to DC tomorrow... hopefully I'll make it in plenty of time for my opening at Canal Square at 6 PM.

See you there!

Opportunity for Visual Artists

I'm still down here in Miami, but I thought that this opportunity may be of interest:

The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), a working retreat for writers, composers and visual artists, has received a grant from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation to support fellowships for Washington area writers, composers, and visual artists. Applications are currently being accepted.

The program will support Fellowships for Washington area artists to attend the VCCA over the next several months. Artists, writers, and composers who are making serious work are encouraged to apply.

The next postmark deadline for applications is January 15 (for summer 2005). For more information, or to print an application, visit their website at www.vcca.com or call 434.946.7236 between 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. weekdays, or to receive an application in the mail, please send a #10 self addressed, stamped envelope to the VCCA at 154 San Angelo Drive, Amherst, VA 24521.

Greetings from Northern Havana

Hello from the land of exiles, still buzzing over Art Basel. Three of our represented artists, Sandra Ramos and Tania Brugera and Marta Maria Perez Bravo did exceptionally well during Art Basel.

Today I received a wonderful tour of the public art collection of the Federal Reserve Bank - Miami Branch. A beautiful building with a predictable collection of forgetable abstract paintings (lest we insult anyone with a representational painting that someone might actually understand visually).

It is astounding to me the buzz and interest and support that this area gives to the visual arts. I am jealous (and fired up).

Anyway... Another painter mocking Bush is getting publicity over idiots censoring his painting. Read the story here.

On the flight here, I began to read Louis Perez voluminous On Becoming Cuban (what an appropriate book to read before heading to Miami, uh?).

I discovered quite an interesting fact.

The father of the modern Irish republic was Eamon de Valera, who was born in New York in 1882. His father, Juan de Valera, although technically a Spaniard, was really a Cuban, born in Cuba (which was part of Spain back then), the son of a Cuban sugar planter and escaped to New York during the Independence Wars with Spain. There he earned his living as a piano teacher. He met and married Irish immigrant Catherine Coll. Juan died shortly after the birth of their son Eduardo. After Juan's death, his wife sent Eduardo to Ireland, where her family changed his name to the Gaelic version of Eduardo: Eamon.

Whodda thunk it?

I'm heading down to Miami this morning. I'll be posting later tonight. Y'all come back now, hear?

Do not however, forget that this coming Friday is the third Friday of the month, and thus the five Canal Square Galleries (Alla Rogers, Parish, Fraser, MOCA and Anne C. Fisher) in Georgetown's Canal Square will be having their opening nights and extended hours. From 6-9 PM.

We will be having an exhibition of my recent charcoal drawings. About 20 new figurative charcoal nudes.

Warning: More self promotion coming.

I've had the December show since 1997, not just one of the bennies of co-owning the gallery, but also because of the curious fact that December (at least in Georgetown) is a very dead month for art in general, and my past shows have sold well and even generated some press.

My 1997 show consisted of portraits of porn stars. Several of the women attended the opening, as well as a few thousand men! The Washington Post's review called that show "irritating."

The 1998 show was based on my interest in Celtic history and legend. The Potomac News wrote that I was a "throwback... but in tune with the times." It was also reviewed by The Bowie Blade.

The 2000 show was "Literary Drawings," and consisted of drawings inspired by some of my favorite books and literary characters. It was reviewed by The Georgetowner

The 2002 show was "27 Years of Frida Kahlo" and it consisted of my work about Kahlo since I first came across her work in 1977. It was reviewed by The Washington City Paper and was a "Hot Pick" in the Washington Times.

Last year's show was Pictish Nation and it was reviewed by The Washington Times and The Georgetowner.

Pictured above is "La Llorona" (The Crying - or Weeping - Woman), one of the new drawings in the exhibition. Learn more about the legend of "La Llorona" here. It is based on a photograph by the great Danny Conant.

Openings are from 6-9 PM. See ya there!

Studio Visits!

Blake Gopnik, the Chief Art Critic of the Washington Post is now making studio visits and writing a terrific and highly readable plug of the artist and his art. This is great news!

Read his first studio visit here. This character Jonathan Grossmalerman sounds like a Peter Sellers who can also paint.

By the way, Blake went to Brooklyn for his studio visit.

I am sure that LA is next, but I am also sure that will soon be making studio visits to DC artists as well. After all, it's easier to catch a cab to a DC area artist studio than the train to New York and then the cab to Brooklyn. Unless Blake subways to Brooklyn.

When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, my house was within a couple of blocks of the Atlantic Avenue stop of the LL subway line and by the time I was 12 or 13 I was a master of the New York subway system.

Betcha he took a cab.

Anti-OPTIONS 2005

As J.T. noted over at Thinking About Art, photographer J.W. Bailey, in response to the whole recent controversy of the WPA/C's OPTIONS 2005 show, has created his entry for the new OPTIONS curator Libby Lumpkin in the form of an Anti-OPTIONS 2005 website detailing his extensive and deep correspondence and research and battle (still ongoing) caused by the firing of Philip Barlow as the original curator.

This is either brilliant or demented. I am not yet sure which, but it is certainly interesting and certainly shows what can be fused when you mix talent, passion and a human pit bull like Bailey.

See Bailey's site here.

Fridaphiles of the World: Unite!

I am curating an online exhibition for Art.com on the subject of an "Homage to Frida Kahlo."

There is no entry fee and Art.com is funding the following prizes:

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

Work is uploaded online and there is no entry fee. The work must in some way relate to Frida Kahlo and her life, work, etc. No reproductions of Frida's own paintings will be considered, unless they introduce a new idea or vision or concept to the Kahlo phenomenom. To enter, click here.

Connie Imboden to Jury Annual Bethesda Photography Prize

The 2005 juror for our annual photography competition has been selected and it is acclaimed photographer Connie Imboden. You can read about the juror here. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The National Museum for Women in the Arts, The National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C., Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, France, and many other public and private collections in Europe and the Americas.

This is our annual juried opportunity for photographers. The deadline for entries is February 3, 2005. In addition to cash prizes, the Best in Show winner will be offered a solo show in 2006. Other award winners will also be included in some of our future group shows.

To look at the prospectus for the competition, click here.

Washington City Paper reviews Aimee Garcia Show in Georgetown

Louis Jacobson reviews our current exhibition of Cuban artist Aimee Garcia Marrero in our Georgetown Gallery.

This is a very young Cuban artist and perhaps one of the most intelligent and talented painters pushing the ancient medium forward. Her show runs until December 15, 2004.

Want an Interest Free Loan to Buy Artwork?

You spot a Chris Ofili print and think it would look lovely in the front room. You simply must have that Tracey Emin drawing to hang above your fireplace. Then you see the four-figure price tag and think again.

Those frustrations are over, if the Arts Council England gets its way. It is planning to offer interest-free loans of up to £2,000 to aspiring contemporary art collectors, aiming to encourage uninitiated buyers into galleries.

I don't know how I missed this story, but I guess the British, with their 17% Value Added Tax (VAT) on top of things can come up with ideas such as this.

Of course don't forget to add 17% VAT to the Chris Ofili print or Tracey Emin drawing. So the loans appear to be a way to gather some new tax revenues in the form of loans.

Ha! Those devious British taxmen! The Beatles were right!

Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

Opening Night: It Must Mean Rain!

Just back from opening night in Bethesda... and guess what? It rained again!

Not only that, but apparently there was some kind of a huge sinkhole on Wisconsin Avenue just a block from the gallery.

The avenue was closed (which really did a number on traffic of course) and The Madonna of the Trail statue was in such danger because of the sinkhole that opened up right in front of it, that a huge crane was brought up to remove the 17-ton statute. The sinkhole was caused by a water main break.

Nonetheless, small but decent crowds and even a nice group for the guided tours. There were even Christmas Carols singing groups going around making the rounds.

But rain plus street sinkholes plus a large statue in danger of tipping over into the sinkhole plus the closing down of a main street artery do NOT add up to being very helpful for a good opening...

The joys of being a gallerista.

Makes my head hurt.

Tonight is the second Friday of the month and thus the Bethesda art galleries are having their opening night and offer the Bethesda Art Walk.

The Bethesda Art Walk now features free guided tours to participating galleries and studios during select Art Walk Fridays. Guided tours will give Bethesda Art Walk patrons the opportunity to learn about downtown Bethesda’s galleries and studios as well as their current shows featuring exhibiting artists. Tours will begin at 7pm. Attendees can meet their guide at the Bethesda Metro Center, located at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue.

We will host our annual Winter Group show, showcasing new work by gallery artists as well as invited artists. Our catered opening reception is from 6-9 PM. Free and open to the public.

See ya there!

Museum of Modern ARF AOM Exhibit Opens Tomorrow

John Aaron's Museum of Modern ARF presents "Hand Picked," the first of several city wide exhibitions by diverse galleries derived from the recently closed Artomatic mega exhibition.

Aaron has picked a select group of small affordable works by around twenty of his favorite artists from Artomatic. The opening reception is tomorrow, Saturday, December 11 from 6-9 PM. The exhibition runs until January 5, 2005.

Congratulations!

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, based on our recommendations has awarded the following fellowships to DC area artists, shown in order of votes by the advisory panel members (by the way, the fellowships are partially -- and substantially -- funded by Pandamania "profits"):

Artists Fellowship Media:
Jonathan Gann
Celeste Crenshaw
Holly Tank

Artists Fellowship Visual Arts:
1. Prescott Moore Lassman
2. Joey Manlapaz
3. Byron Peck
4. Margaret Steinhilber (Maggie Michael)
5. Daniel Steinhilber
6. Luis R. Salcedo
7. Patricia Tobacco Forrester
8. Cheryl P. Derricotte
9. Allison Miner
10. Anne Marchand
11. Elaine Langerman
12. Roderick Turner
13. Kris Swanson
14. Anna Demovidova
15. Colin Winterbottom
16. Stuart Gosswein

As I've noted before, I was disappointed on the low number of applications that were submitted by DC visual artists, and hope that the next cycle (deadline is next June) has more applicants.

To get an application, contact the DC Commission and ask them to put you on their mailing list. Congratulations to all selected artists!

Jonathan Padget discusses Linda Hesh's Art Ads Project in today's Washington Post's Arts Beat column.

There was no "Galleries" column. Get used to it. There were, however, four music reviews on the day that the Style section is supposed to focus on Galleries and Arts News.

The Last Few AOM Top 10 Lists

Angela Kleis was one of the participating artists in this year's AOM and is the President of the Centreville Regional Art Guild. She says that "these are the artists whose work I searched out and spent a lot of time at, as much as I could."

1. Colin Winterbottom - Photography; his is my absolute favorite!
2. Kathryn Cornelius - Installation, before it was shut down. I LOVED it! I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience it before it was closed. Very powerful.
3. Robert Weiner - Glass. Beautiful!
4. M. Rion Hoffman - Lightboxes. So much to see inside those little lighted boxes.
5. Kay Lane - Abstract painting.
6. Gregory Ferrand - Painting. Faces with Desperation. They made me very uncomfortable, and it was great!
7. Haya Alhossain - Photography; Cities-Paris. The only foreign city I've ever visited, and these photographs captured it perfectly.
8. Meghan Taylor - Drawing/painting
9. Scott Davis - Photography
10. Ruza Spak - Painting; very simple, very powerful, very large.

---

Matt Hollis is DC area artist, who also exhibited at AOM and submits the following list:

1. The lips on the boys painted by Rob Van der Zee.
2. The richness of Richard Kightlinger's coilor pallet.
3. Scott Davis' River Tower photo.
4. Christine Cardellino's Tower of Babel paintings.
5. The pictures of Beth Hinners as a child at the Children's Museum she had next to her collage.
6. The swirling masses of debris and color by Inga McCaslin Frank.
7. The subtle beauty of the plants in Aaron Flemming's drawings.
8. The personalization of another culture's craft in Mark Jenkins' pubic hair quilts.
9. The flashbacks of being at the Children's Museum as a child.
10. The opportunity to meet and share with other DC artists.

Just returned from a few days in San Diego. On the flight over I read Mario Vargas Llosa's erotic novel In Praise of the Stepmother, nicely illustrated by Jacob Jordaens, Francois Boucher, Titian, Francis Bacon and Fernando de Szyszlo (one of the lesser recognized but certainly a key and influential Latin American abstract artist - Peruvian like the author).

On the flight back today I read Mea Cuba by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, a spectacular book that documents (from the perspective of perhaps the greatest living Cuban writer) what Castro has done to Cuban artists, writers and poets, and Cuba.

I had an interesting experience on this flight back.

I had originally planned to fly back on Friday, but I finished my business early and thus changed my flights so that I departed from San Diego early this morning. So I called Moe, who is a taxi driver that I've been using for years to pick me up to and from the airport. I called him and told him that I had taken care of everything a day early, so he needed to pick me up tonight at BWI.

From San Diego I flew to Phoenix, and I was sitting there, waiting for my connecting flight to BWI, reading Mea Cuba , when this very large, cop approached me and asked me:

"Excuse me sir, are you Lenny?"

"Yes," I answered, wondering how this very large cop knew my name and why was he asking me for it.

"Can I speak to you for a minute?" he said.

"Sure," I answered getting up and walking with him, while a few dozen Baltimore-bound passengers looked at us in alarm and my mind was running several algorithms trying to figure out what was going on.

We walked a few feet away, and I looked at his name (Officer Contreras - a very large, shaved-head, imposing cop).

He was very nice and professional, and it turns out that someone in San Diego, a fellow passenger at the terminal, had overheard me talking to Moe, and somehow deduced from my conversation with my taxi driver that I was a Mafia hitman, so this alarmed citizen, as soon as the plane landed in Phoenix, went to the airport police and demanded that they investigate.

"How did you know my name and what I looked like?" I asked Officer Contreras, intrigued and impressed at the efficiency of the whole event (and after showing him some ID, which he dutifully recorded in his notebook). He explained that this concerned citizen had listened to my conversation (where I mentioned my name to Moe) and then taken a snapshot of me with his cell phone, which he had then shown the Phoenix Airport cops and demanded that they arrest me before I completed my next Mafia job in Baltimore.

Now, I sort of feel like Dan Rather with the whole "What's the frequency Kenneth?" episode.

I'm expecting black helicopers to fly over my house tonight.