JT has an excellent review (over at Thinking About Art) of the Kelly Towles show at David Adamson Gallery.

I'll try to go and see this show soon. I must admit that I am a bit surprised to see David Adamson exhibit a young, new artist like Kelly Towles, as Adamson has historically, at least in my memory, rarely exhibited emerging local artists, and has focused more on exhibiting established artists and the Gyclee reproductions of the many art superstars that his superb digital printmaking reputation brings to his fold.

Congratulations to Washington, DC painter Maggie Michael, who was just awarded a $20,000 grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Earlier this year, Ms. Michael was also awarded $5,000 from the the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Maggie Michael is represented locally by G Fine Art.

An Open Letter to the Washington Post

As I've discussed before, the Post's Style section will soon have a new Assistant Managing Editor leading it. Deborah Heard will be the person in charge of Style starting January 1, 2005.

I believe that this offers all of us in the area's visual arts community an opportunity to see if we can convince Ms. Heard to augment the WaPost's tiny coverage of art galleries and area artists and I have asked all of you to write to her, or at least email her, with copies to her boss, Lenny Downie and the Arts Editor, my good friend John Pancake. Ignore the fact that they are all focused on politics and a card-carrying member of the Fake News Industrial Complex.

In this spirit I have written a letter to Ms. Heard, with copies to Downie and Pancake.

December 19, 2004

Deborah Heard
Washington Post Style
1150 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20071

Dear Ms. Heard,

Congratulations on your promotion to Style section editor. It is our sincere wish and that of the artists whom we represent that you not only enjoy this important position, but it is also our hope that you may consider bringing some needed changes with respect to coverage of our area’s art galleries and visual artists.

It is thus why I am writing to you, in the hope that I can bring to your attention the perception by our area’s visual arts community of artists, fine arts galleries, alternative arts venues and artists organizations, of the poor coverage now afforded by the Washington Post to them/us.

As an artist, freelance art critic, radio arts commentator, publisher of DC Art News, and co-owner of the two Fraser Galleries, I believe that I have my finger on the heartbeat of our region’s visual art scene, and as I have discussed many times in the past with my good friend John Pancake, it is also my subjective opinion (but backed by empirical facts), that the Post does a very, very poor job in covering our area’s art galleries and visual artists, especially in comparison to your excellent coverage of the local theaters, area performance venues, as well as movies, fashion, books, etc.

For example, although there are almost twice as many art galleries in the Greater Washington region than theatres, for the last several years, the Style and Weekend section have consistently offered five to six times more print space, in the form of reviews, for theatres than galleries. Even plays in Olney get reviewed consistently (and we applaud you for this), while important visual art shows get ignored, simply because the Galleries column is the only regular column in the Post to cover local area gallery shows, augmented occasionally by the On Exhibit column in the Weekend section.

To make matters worse, the Washington Post is the only major newspaper that I know of, that has a Chief Art critic (Blake Gopnik) who does not review local galleries, and only (with a very, very rare exception) reviews museum shows. In fact, it was quite embarrassing earlier this year, when Gopnik was asked on the air (at the Kojo Nmandi show on WAMU) to discuss his favorite Washington area artist and he could not come up with a single name. In comparison, the chief art critics of major newspapers such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, etc. not only review museums, but also the galleries in their cities. It has been a mystery to our art scene why Mr. Gopnik has been allowed to segregate himself to only review our area and other cities’ museums and other cities’ art galleries and other cities’ artists, but not Washington area art galleries and artists. Does this make any sense to you?

Furthermore, your Thursday Style banner still claims that Thursdays is focused on Galleries/Art News, and yet, and consistently, there have been more theatre reviews on Thursdays than actual gallery reviews. Additionally, as you know, several years ago, the Arts Beat column, which used to be published every Thursday, was reduced to twice a month. Not only that, but that column, which used to often augment visual arts coverage, now has become, under the last two or three writers, a jack-of-all-arts column, more often than not writing about theatre, or music.

The evidence that the Washington Post has unexplainable apathy towards our area’s visual arts community is also highlighted by the recent issue with the reduction of the Galleries column to a twice-a-month column rather than weekly.

While we realize that a final decision has not been made in this issue, and that you are awaiting John Pancake’s return from his teaching sabbatical to finalize the issue, it nonetheless shows and adds evidence to the claim that the Post simply does not care about our city’s regional visual art scene (when it comes to our galleries and artists).

Why? Simply imagine that several of your many theatre critics all quit at once, leaving you with only one theater critic, who could only write one theatre review every couple of weeks. Would you reduce your theatre coverage from its very generous, almost daily occurrence, to twice a month?

I doubt it.

Why? Because it is clear that the Washington Post is dedicated to helping to grow our theatre scene, and this is a great effort that has yielded brilliant gains to our area’s cultural tapestry. Your effort includes not only daily coverage of the theatre, but also (I believe) around $300,000 in pro bono advertising for theatres.

This is great! And we all applaud the great theatre coverage. But what about us?

We also applaud your consistent coverage of our area museums, and as we are lucky enough to have some of the great museums in the world in our city, we are also grateful that the Washington Post affords great coverage through Mr. Gopnik in Style and the Sunday Arts, Mr. Richard once in a while in Style, and through Mr. O’Sullivan in Weekend, with Jacqueline Trescott and Teresa Wiltz also adding news articles and stories also dealing with our museums.

This is great! And we all applaud this informative coverage. But what about us?

And the Style coverage of movies (often then reviewed again by a different writer in Weekend), music (often then reviewed again by a different writer in Weekend), and dance is also adequate and informative, if somewhat repetitive, putting into question one excuse given in the past for not augmenting gallery coverage: "lack of newsprint space."

I will close this verbose letter with one last statistic: In the last couple of years the Style section has had over twice as many reviews and articles about fashion shows in Europe, New York and other cities, elegantly illustrated with color photos of gaunt models on the runways of Rome, New York, London and Paris, than reviews of art galleries in the Greater Washington area.

In my prejudiced opinion, I find it hard to believe that your readers would be more interested in un-wearable fashion from the runways of Europe than on our area’s art galleries and artists.

We welcome the change in command at Style and I sincerely and warmly wish you the best of luck in the job. I also hope that you bring an open mind to this subject, and consider augmenting gallery coverage to a level commensurate with Style’s coverage of the other cultural genres.

Warmest regards,

F. Lennox Campello

Cc: Leonard Downie
John Pancake

I hope that some of you write Ms. Heard as well, and I think that with enough notes and emails, she will realize that some changes need to be made under her leadership.

Last Thursday's Reviews

"[Contemporary] photography no longer bears any resemblance to photography in the past century's sense. If anything, it's a lot closer to the way old-fashioned figurative painting used to be."

Read Jessica's reviews of The Staged Body at Curator's Office, Athena Tacha at Marsha Mateyka and Brandon Morse at Strand on Volta.

And at the WCP, read Jeffry Cudlin's review of Brandon Morse here.

And also at the WCP, Louis Jacobson has three reviews: Christopher Burkett at Kathleen Ewing Gallery, and "Opening on 14th" at Hemphill Fine Arts, and "All the Mighty World: The Photographs of Roger Fenton, 1852–1860" at the National Gallery of Art.

Philip Barlow's Top 10 DC Art Shows of 2004

This is the first of about a dozen Top 10 art shows of 2004 that I've received so far. It comes from Philip Barlow, a well-known DC area art collector, board member of several DC art organizations and a knowledgeable member of our visual arts scene. I'll be posting the others during the rest of the week.

Barlow passes that his list is in order and that it was unintentional that he wound up with 10 different galleries in the list.

1. Invisible Things, Dan Treado, Addison/Ripley Gallery, May 15 – June 19

2. Run, Maggie Michael, G Fine Art, September 18 – October 16

3. Evidence, Robin Rose, Numark Gallery, February 27 – April 10

4. Leo Villareal Show, Leo Villareal, Conner Contemporary, May 15 – June 26

5. Concentrics, Craig Dennis, Jae Ko, Kathleen Kucka, Andrea Way, Marsha Mateyka Gallery, June 5 – July 24

6. AM I THE BeST, Carroll Sockwell, Washington Arts Museum (Edison Place Gallery), November 3 – December 17

7. On The Line: machines, maps and memory, Perry Steindel, Sylvie van Helden, Jennifer Swan, Andrew Krieger, Andy Holtin, Katy Uravich, District of Columbia Arts Center, April 30 – May 30

8. These Things Happen, Brandon Morse, Strand on Volta, November 18 – December 18

9. The Out-of-Towners, Laura Amussen, Lily Cox-Richard, Harrison Haynes, George Jenne, Michele Kong, Transformer Gallery, December 13, 2003 - January 17, 2004

10. Thom Flynn, Thom Flynn, Nevin Kelly Gallery, April 21 – May 9

The Sculpture-Stealing Capital of the World

What's going on in Fairfax County? As James W. Bailey points out, in 2004 there were three large sculptures stolen or dumped in Fairfax County!

1. Marc Sijan’s $40,000 "Legs Folded" from the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival. (It was eventually recovered from the apartment of the thief in Fairfax County).

2. Zach Oxman’s sculpture of Robert S. Simon in Reston. (Also recovered from Lake Anne and reinstalled at Lake Anne, Fairfax County).

3. And the PandaMania Panda found dumped in Fairfax County. (Recovered in Fairfax County - In today’s WaPo Metro section there is a picture with a photo caption line of a Fairfax County Police Officer pulling a stolen PandaMania Panda (originally stolen from the corner of Connecticut and Florida Avenues NW) from the Pohick Creek in Lorton.

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.