Since 2003... the 11th highest ranked art blog on the planet! And with over SEVEN million visitors, F. Lennox Campello's art news, information, gallery openings, commentary, criticism, happenings, opportunities, and everything associated with the global visual arts scene with a special focus on the Greater Washington, DC area.
Back from NPR
New gallery opening soon on U Street
Project 4 Gallery will be opening soon at 903 U Street NW Washington DC 20001 tel: 202/232-4340 and website here.
The grand opening reception is February 25, 2006 from 6-8:30PM featuring the works of Lori Grinker.
Welcome!
Silverthorne on Interface
Alexandra Silverthorne, over at Solarize This, reviews our current show at Fraser Bethesda; Interface: Art & Technology.
Read the review here.
He Who Owns the Walls (can censor it?)
A couple of weeks ago I told you that the Mid City Artists were holding their Winter Art Exhibition at the Results Gallery at Results the Gym Capitol Hill.
And Anne Marchand attended the opening together with artist Angela White and were surprised to discover that (as Marchand reports) they were:"Surprised when two of Angela's oils on canvas weren't hung by the management because a certain part of the male anatomy was visible. A classical nude by Regina Miele was also NOT hung by the management."
Today in the WaPo's Reliable Source column, Amy Artsinger and Rozanne Roberts pick up on the story first reported by Marchand in her Blog.
The WaPo's Reliable Source reports that:
...it's in the club policy: "Because of our family-friendly environment, we don't hang artwork that adults wouldn't feel comfortable discussing with their children," said Sarah French , director of operations.Apparently that also applies to paintings and drawings.
White's a "great artist," said French, but crossed the "no nudity" line: "You've got to be clothed outside the locker area."
On the air on Wednesday
Bloggies
Congrats to Frank Warren's PostSecret blog, which has been nominated in a record five categories for the 2006 Bloggies awards, including Best American Weblog and Weblog of the Year!
See the finalists and cast your votes here.
Kirkland on PostSecret and Campello
Thinking About Art has a review of the amazing PostSecret phenomenom and also of my recent exhibition.
Read both of them here.
New gallery
There's a new gallery in town. Nowuno Gallery is located at 403 Constitution Avenue, NE in DC and can be reached at (202) 546-9071 and website here.
Nowuno represents the work of Henrik Sundqvist, Amanda Kates, Laurence King, Aaron Brophy, T.H. Gomillion, Eileen T. Wold, Robert Lindsay, Heather Levy, Jay Rees, James Green, Vèrta Reyes, and Rebecca Tiffany.
Welcome!
By the way Heather Levy is currently having a solo show at Gallery Frame Avenue, located at 4919 Cordell Avenue, in Bethesda (through Feb. 3, 2006). Read Alexandra Silverthorne's review of that show here.
Cosmos on Erickson
The fair Heather, from Two Timing the Cosmos, has a really eloquent review of the current Bruce Erickson exhibition at our Fraser Gallery Georgetown farewell show.
Read it here.
By the way, Heather is a pretty good photographer on her own right. See her work here.
Yuan Fu and the Katzen opening
So last night I went to the multi-opening reception at the Katzen Arts Center (I love that building by the way! And about time that we have a place in the DC area where one can actually park for an opening - for free - in less than a minute). And it was packed to the rafters with everyone and anyone in the DC area remotely interested in DC visual arts.
I saw and talked to most DC gallery owners, collectors, bloggers and artists (I skipped the grubs), and while talking to the talented Mary Coble (represented locally by Conner Contemporary and who is soon heading to Costa Rica on vacation and has learned that if you spell S-O-C-K-S, it literally means (in Spanish) "That's what it is."), I discovered that she's a vegetarian and thus I told her about the recent epiphany that I had while visiting Yuan Fu Restaurant in Rockville.
I will have to return to the Katzen and spend more time looking at the great exhibitions currently on display there. More on that later.
But, as promised to Mary, more on Yuan Fu Restaurant now.
I am not, have never been, and will never be a vegetarian. I respect people who are, but I am not one of them/you.
So it was with somewhat of a slight trepidation that I allowed myself to be invited into Yuan Fu a few days ago.
It was amazing Chinese food!
I had a culinary epiphany!
Let me tell you about it: To start, there's a little explanation about the food on the cover of their menus. It almost apologizes because all the dishes are labeled as if they were actually chicken, pork, seafood, beef, etc. and it reassures the public that it is all 100% vegetarian (they use gluten, tofu, vegetables and tofu skin for their dishes) and no MSG is used. They also discuss that they use less oil that the average Chinese restaurant, and there is even a special Non-Fat section of the menu.
And then you open the menu, and see the photos of the dishes; and they all look like the "real thing."
In other words, the kitchen artists at Yuan Fu actually take the vegetarian ingridents and shape and mold and color them to look (and taste) just like the real thing; it's an amazing feat of culinary trompe l'oeil and trompe la bouche at the same time!
I first ordered an assorted plate of appetizers, and my eyes couldn't believe that I was not eating duck, sausages, spring rolls, etc. I also ordered the roasted duck and cilantro rolls (which came with plum sauce... yummy) and they were delicious as well!
Then for my main course, we ordered Moshu Pork and Mahi. The pork dish looked and tasted like pork, and that nicely crisped skin on the Mahi was actually seaweed!
And the staff was great! When I actually ordered in Chinese, I thought the entire kitchen staff was going to come out and chat. The Chinese lady who owns the place came out, and then started talking to me in Spanish, and we began to discuss the significant number of Cuban people of Chinese ancestry, and how Chinese Cuban food has evolved into an interesting branch of culinary rarity.
Anyway: I loved this place and will return many times. Go visit them often.
Yuan Fu is located at 798 Rockville Pike, in Rockville and it is open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. A lunch special is available from opening to 1:30 p.m. Telephone: (301) 762-5937 or (301) 762-5938.
Congratulations
To Roanoke, Virginia- based artist Susan Jamison, who has has joined Irvine Contemporary.
Jamison's work came to the attention of Martin Irvine through the Seven exhibition last year. Her striking and provocative egg tempera portraits of women and large panel paintings have received extraordinary acclaim. The selection of her works that Irvine featured at Scope/Miami sold out in a few hours.
Susan's new body of work, including her egg tempera panel paintings and new drawings, will be on view in a solo show at Irvine in May.
Dawson on Interface
The WaPo's Jessica Dawson reviews Interface, currenty on exhibition at our Bethesda gallery.
Typical...
One of the things that I could always count after nine years in Georgetown is the fact that I would get 2-3 parking tickets a year.
And tonight I got the farewell parking ticket from the highly efficient Ubermetermaid Storm Troopers crack squad of Georgetown parking enforcers. It brought back memories of the day that parking meters went from expiring at 6:30PM to expiring at 10PM (no notice given) and the orgy of tickets that followed; or the two or three times that a massive truck would take a spot and a half of the space on 31st Street, just before the Canal, but I would get the ticket because my van's rear end would then stick out a foot past the "no parking" sign.
But tonight, when I arrived at the gallery, I found the primo Doris Day parking spot (so named because I always noticed how in the old Doris Day movies everyone always seems to find a parking spot in New York City or wherever the movie takes place, right in front of where they are going). And so I park, and feed the meter six quarters before I notice that it is blinking "fail."
So I tape a piece of paper over the meter, explaining what the issue is, and then proceed to unload the van. In between the time that it takes to carry a few bottles of wine from 31st Street to the Canal Square, on a return trip I find a shiny new ticket from Officer Johnson, and the note gone.
A ticket for $25 samolians as a farewell gift from Georgetown to me.
Metcalfe on Hopscotch
The City Paper's John Metcalfe was present at the Interface opening last Friday and he observed the Hopscotch performance by David Page and has written an excellent report here.
Opportunity for Artists
Deadline: February 24, 2006
Wilson Building Public Art Program Call for Artists: The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities is currently accepting applications for the John A. Wilson Building Public Art Program. The works purchased through this call for artists are specifically designated for permanent installation in the Wilson Building.
For more information and an application, please visit the Commission's website to download the Call for Artists and application, or call 202-724-5613.
And then there was one...
The final exhibit at the Fraser Gallery Georgetown opens tomorrow, Friday January 20, 2006 with an opening reception (from 6-9PM) for Bruce Erickson, winner of the 2005 Georgetown International Fine Arts Competition. The exhibition closes on February 15, 2006.
Since 1996 we have been working hard to deliver the best in contemporary realism, fine art photography and narrative glass sculpture in the region. Additionally, the galleries have become one of the the premier exhibit spaces for contemporary Cuban and European artists.
"The location is only one factor in the success or failure of a gallery. Our gallery is now a destination for collectors because they appreciate our knowledge of contemporary artists working in this region and most importantly: we have a realistic understanding of the art market here. The relationships that we have with both the artists that we represent and our collectors is something that can’t be developed overnight... it takes time, honesty, integrity and a lot of hard work," said Catriona Fraser.
The Fraser Gallery in Georgetown will close at the end of the February 2006 exhibition, which appropriately enough brings the Washington, DC debut of Pennsylvania artist Bruce Erikson, winner of the Eight Annual Georgetown International Fine Arts Competition, juried and selected by Jack Rassmussen, Curator and Director, Katzen Art Center at American University.
2005 has been the galleries’ best year ever for sales, as well as a record number of museum acquisitions and the highest number of published reviews about our exhibitions ever both in the U.S. and abroad.
As our region continues to grow and expand with more fine art galleries opening every year, we feel confident that both our artists and collectors will continue to benefit from our commitment to the visual arts in this region as we focus our energies into one space in Bethesda.
Catriona and Lennox
DeBerardinis
I've been hearing good things and hope to drop by soon to see "Pictures of Nothing: Abstraction," new paintings by Rosetta DeBerardinis on exhibit through Feb. 28 at Ozmosis Gallery, 7908 Woodmont Ave., in Bethesda. Gallery hours: Tues. - Sat. 12:00 - 6:00 PM and by appointment. For more information go to www.ozmosisgallery.com or call 301-664-9662
Wolov on Interface
Nekkid with a Camera checks in with a review of Interface at our Bethesda gallery.
Read that review here.
Congratulations
Jiha Moon has a wonderful review of her recent show at the Curator's Office by George Howell in the Jan/Feb issue of Art Papers. Unfortunately, it's not online.
If Howell emails me a copy of the review, I'll post it here.
