Alligators (and a giant bunny)

I am super busy this week, with some deliveries and installations to take care of, as well as a massive amount of deadlines and work that has all come down to this week, as I have an unplanned trip to California next week.

More later... there are loads of terrific shows around town that needs some good mention and discussion.

Meanwhile, Michelle Banks sent me the below, which brought a smile to my face this morning:

Artists erect giant pink bunny on mountain

An enormous pink bunny has been erected on an Italian mountainside where it will stay for the next 20 years.

The 200-foot-long toy rabbit lies on the side of the 5,000 foot high Colletto Fava mountain in northern Italy's Piedmont region.

Viennese art group Gelatin designed the giant soft toy and say it was "knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool".

Group member Wolfgang Gantner said: "It's supposed to make you feel small, like Gulliver. You walk around it and you can't help but smile."

And Gelatin members say the bunny is not just for walking around - they are expecting hikers to climb its 20 foot sides and relax on its belly.

The giant rabbit is expected to remain on the mountain side until 2025.

New Arts Newspaper

There's a new (at least new to me) arts-focused monthly. It's the Scout Newspaper, and they're looking for submissions.

Details here.

Arts on Foot

Today is the Arts on Foot festival around the Penn Quarter.

Arts on Foot will feature visual and performing artists at multiple venues between 4th and 14th Streets, Pennsylvania Avenue and L Street.

New this year are a preview of the 2006 Capital Fringe Festival, participation at the Canadian Embassy of the DC Shorts Film Festival, sculptor Robert Cole’s street exhibit at Gallery Place, and Woolly Mammoth’s new theatre, which people may take tours of during Arts on Foot.

Edison Place Gallery with an exhibit organized by the YWCA has also joined the list of participants. And the juried Art Market is more than fifty percent larger than last year’s market with many well-known names exhibiting and selling their artwork as part of the festival.

Along with all of the day's scheduled events, 22 area restaurants will be offering "Samplings" of their cuisine at modest prices on F Street between 8th and 9th and celebrated chefs from a number of these and other restaurants will demonstrate their cooking skills.

Details, schedules and directions here.

See ya there!

I went to the opening of "Mirrors: Contemporary Mexican Artists in the United States," last Wednesday at The Cultural Institute of Mexico, and it was packed.

The exhibition, curated by my good friend Santiago Espinoza de los Monteros was absolutely terrific, and if I have time, I will return to it and write more extensively about it.

My top pick for the group was the astonishing work by San Diego artist Marianela de la Hoz, who displayed a set of tiny tempera miniatures that were absolutely breathtaking in detail, composition and intelligent titles that became doors into the psyche of the painting.

"Hoy estuve tejiendo con el estambre de tus ojos"
Egg tempera on board
3.9 x 1.9 in. c.2003

And on Friday...

Numark Gallery has the opening of its fall season with The Empire of Sighs, a group exhibition curated by Andrea Pollan. The Empire of Sighs brings together nine artists: Laura Carton, Sarah Hobbs, Kyung Jeon, Michael Kalmbach, Takehito Koganezawa, Michele Kong, Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz, Roxy Paine and Julianne Swartz. These artists conjure a mood of delicate neurosis, awash with fantasy, obsessiveness, hallucinatory allusions, erotic illicitness, childhood fears, solitude, ethereality, and hints at forces unseen. The reception is from 6:30-8PM and the show will be up through October 29.

In Georgetown, the five Canal Square galleries will host their usual third Friday openings from 6-9PM. We will host the American solo debut of Lithuanian artist Zygimantas Augustinas, whose work we've been showing since he was an art student in Vilnius in 1997, and whose career skyrocketed in Europe when he was one of the prizewinners in the prestigious BP Portrait Prize Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The openings are catered by the Sea Catch Restaurant and go from 6-9PM.

Moved Man by Augustinas
At the Arlington Arts Center, the Fall Solo Exhibitions series open with a reception from 6-9PM, featuring six one-person shows, each in its own gallery. If you're there, don't miss the amazing video paintings by Scott Hutchison and the glass work of Allegra Marquart.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

"Mirrors: Contemporary Mexican Artists in the United States," opens tonight at 7:00 pm at The Cultural Institute of Mexico.

Details here.

And also opening tonight is That's Not How I Remember It... at Salve Regina Gallery at CUA. This is an exhibition exploring how our identities shape and are shaped by memories. Opening from 6-9PM. The exhibition includes work by:

Beverly Ress
Candace Keegan
Elizabeth Jernigan
John Figura
Judy Jashinsky
Karen J. Topping
Lori Spencer
Matthew Liddle

Salve Regina Gallery is located on the campus of Catholic University, 620 Michigan Ave, NE. Washington DC, 20064 or take Metro’s Red line to the Brookland/CUA. Details here.

WSC Fundraiser

The Washington Sculpture Center is being kicked out of their building in order to build the new baseball stadium.

In order to help raise funds to pay for relocation and set-up expenses at their new site, they are hosting a Sculpture Soiree and Silent Auction on September 22, 2005.

View details and RSVP here.

Opportunity for Artists
Deadline: October 15, 2005.

The Cultural Affairs Division of the city of Las Vegas Department of Leisure Services invites the submission of proposals for individual and group exhibitions for its 2006/07 gallery season screening. Exhibition proposals will be reviewed for programming in two city galleries: the Charleston Heights Arts Center Gallery at 800 South Brush Street or the Reed Whipple Cultural Center Gallery at 821 Las Vegas Boulevard North.

To download a pdf with images and floor plans of these gallery spaces click on "Gallery Floor Plans" under related links at this website.

To participate in the screening, artists/curators must submit a written exhibition synopsis (no more than one page) with 15-20 supporting images (slides or jpegs on CD) with an identification list, artist statement(s), and artist resume(s). Other suitable supporting materials include color prints, exhibition cards and press clippings, all of which are optional. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope for return of materials.

All visual art practices suitable for gallery installations of 10 to 12 weeks will be considered. All applicants can expect notification regarding their proposal by mail by February 1, 2006. Address submissions to:

Catherine Borg
Charleston Heights Arts Center
800 South Brush Street
Las Vegas, Nevada 89107

Call (702) 229-4674 or e-mail cborg@lasvegasnevada.gov for information.

Role Play at Target

The exhibition "Role Play: The Definition of Self in Contemporary Society" is currently on view at the Target Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center. This thought-provoking show was curated by my good friend J. W. Mahoney, Washington, DC, Corresponding Editor for Art in America magazine.

This exhibition looks at the range of societal roles and assumptions placed on individuals in contemporary American life. Mr. Mahoney selected artists from some 200 applicants nationwide. The exhibition goes through October 16.

Art Blogs Come to Montreal

ARTIVISTIC 05 is dedicating a significant portion of their conference schedule to Art Blogs and I've been invited to participate, but don't know yet if I will be able to come, due to some health complications of one of my daughters.

But it sounds interesting! Check it out here.

Bailey on Katrina

Bailey has an Op Ed in the Reston Times and Reston Observer newspapers.

Read it here.

Mirrors



The Cultural Institute of Mexico has what sounds like a great exhibition opening on Wednesday.

Titled "Mirrors: Contemporary Mexican Artists in the United States," the opening will take place on September 14th, 7:00 pm at the Institute.

The exhibition presents works of 36 Mexican artists currently living in different cities of the United States. The 100 works in this exhibition have been selected by the prestigious curator Santiago Espinosa de los Monteros and includes paintings, videos, sculptures, installations and photographs.

See ya there!

CAMH for Katrina

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston announced today the launch of the Katrina Artists Trust (KAT), a grant-making trust to provide financial support for visual artists in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama who were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

By focusing its support on the painters, sculptors, and other visual artists who lived in the regions damaged by the hurricane, the Museum’s KAT program provides a unique source of revitalization for a community with a long artistic tradition. By helping artists rebuild their studios, purchase new materials, and even salvage damaged works, the Trust’s grants will also contribute to the economic revitalization of the devastated region, aid these communities in their reconstruction efforts, and help renew cultural tourism.

The Museum welcomes other organizations as partners and collaborators in this effort. For further information, please call 713 284 8250 or visit their website.

Moon for Katrina

Trawick Prizewinner Jiha Moon's donated piece from her show at Curator's Office sold last night at the opening for $800. Moon also donated the sales proceeds from one work at Atlanta Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta, where she's in the group show called "Red Beans and Rice"; that work sold for $700.

Tapeman Cometh

Mark Jenkins raised $410 dollars today for Habitat for Humanity's Katrina Relief Fund.

A special thanks to our upstairs neighbor, the lovely Anne C. Fisher, who threw in a couple of nice checks both to Mark's fundraiser and one to be added to our donation to the Southern Arts Federation.

Monuments, TV and Tape

Saturday schedule:

1. Drop daughters off at the Mall for sightseeing, museum hopping and monument visiting.

2. Head to Alexandria for videotaping of ArtsMedia News' first segment: the Alexandria Festival of the Arts.

3. Head to Georgetown to Canal Square, where Mark Jenkins is having an installation "tape yard sale" going on from 12-6PM (lots of sangria and munchies). The Canal Square is at 31st and M Street, NW in G'town.

The Daughters of F. Lennox Campello

The Campello sisters are in town

Trawick Prize Winners Announced

Jiha Moon of Annandale has won the $10,000 Trawick Prize.

Trawick Prize Chair Catriona Fraser, 2005 Best in Show winner Jiha Moon and Trawick Prize founder Carol Trawick
Read the WaPo story by Jonathan Padget here, and see lots of photos from the opening and awards ceremony here.

Winners were announced last night at a private reception in Bethesda's Creative Partners Gallery, which is hosting the exhibition of work by the ten Trawick Prize finalists.

Dean Kessman of Washington, DC (who will be having a solo show coming soon at Conner Contemporary) came in second and received $2,000. The third-place winner, Denise Tassin of Baltimore, received $1,000.

Baltimore's Michele Kong, 30, won the $1,000 young-artist award, which we sponsor.


Montgomery County Council Members Howie Denis and Nancy Floreen at the opening reception
The Trawick Prize is sponsored by the amazing generosity of Carol Trawick, who also sponsors the annual Bethesda Painting Awards. Buy Jiha Moon now!

Art Season Opens Tonight

The DC "art season" opens tonight with a series of openings throughout the city and continues through the weekend...

Details here.

I'll be on the radio and on TV over the next few days and weeks discussing all the upcoming DC area gallery and museum shows. More later.

Bethesda Art Walk Tonight

Tonight is time for the Bethesda Art Walk, with 13 participating galleries and art venues.

A free guided tour is also offered. See details of the tour here. Tours will begin at 6:30pm. Attendees can meet their guide at the Bethesda Metro Center, located at the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Wisconsin Avenue. Attendees do not have to participate in tours to visit Art Walk galleries.

And the $14,000 Trawick Prize(s) winners at the finalists' exhibition will be on display at the Creative Partners Gallery in Bethesda. The opening reception will be from 6-9PM.

Also not to be missed is Neptune Gallery's solo exhibition for Scott G. Brooks titled "Jumping Through Hoops." Reception for Scott is from 6-9PM.

We will host the return to the DC area of former area artist (now living in Philly) Michael Sprouse, who returns with an exhibition of new paintings. The catered reception for Sprouse is from 6-9PM.

See ya there!