Bethesda Artists Markets

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is currently accepting applications for the June 10 and July 8, 2006 Bethesda Artist Markets.

Bethesda Artist Markets are one-day events featuring 30 local and regional artists in the Bethesda Place Plaza. Applications can be downloaded from their website.

To request a hardcopy, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Bethesda Artist Market
c/o Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
7700 Old Georgetown Road
Bethesda, MD 20814

The Bethesda Artist Market will be held from 10am – 5pm in the Bethesda Place Plaza located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. The Bethesda Artist Market is produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District and is free to the public.

Artists must be 18 years of age or older. All fine art and fine craft are accepted including, but not limited to: painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, fiber art, digital, mixed media, clay, wearable fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, paper, ceramics and wood are accepted. Reproductions are accepted. All booth space are 10’x10’ and all artists must provide their own white 10’X10’ tent. No staking is allowed and artists must bring their own weights.

Each artist must submit five slides of their work and one slide of their booth, application, a non-refundable entry fee of $10 and a separate check of $50 for the booth fee. Please call 301/215-6660, Ext. 17 with any questions.

Wanna go to an opening tonight?

The Physicality of Ballet is the MFA Thesis Exhibition by Pamela Nabholz, on exhibition from February 14 - 26, 2006, and the artist's reception is today, February 14, from 4 - 7pm at the Dimock Gallery, Lower Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University.

The WPA\C Experimental Media Series

Deadline: March 1, 2006

The WPA/C is calling all video, performance, and sound artists for their Experiemental Media Series - No membership in the WPA/C is required to enter.

Works from this open call will be selected by Kathryn Cornelius & Djakarta, and will be viewed on May 24th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. This is the final night of a three-night WPA\C experimental media series held in the Corcoran Gallery of Art's Armand Hammer Auditorium.

Download calls here.

The WPA\C Experimental Media Series:

7:00 - 9:00 pm at the Corcoran Gallery of Art's Auditorium

Night One - March 30th - Curated by Kathryn Cornelius

Night Two - April 26th - Curated by Djakarta

Night Three - May 24th - Juried submissions from Open Call by Kathryn
Cornelius & Djakarta

Richard on Muhammad's Pics

The WaPo's former (and now semi-retired) Chief Art Critic discusses a little art history of images of the Islamic prophet that exist in our area and in many Islamic nations.

Read the WaPo article here.

Opportunity for People with Nokia Phones

Deadline: February 28, 2006

Nokia is sponsoring an online photography competition of photos taken with their phones.

All submissions are displayed on the competition website, which also includes attempts by the professionals to "shoot new" using Nokia's N90 camera phone.

This competition is free to enter.

Download complete details and submit your image today though this website.

WPA/C Auction a huge success

The threat of snow didn't stop buyers and collectors (although it stopped me, and I am sorry to say that I chickened out at the last minute and didn't go) and I am told that that WPA/C auction had an amazing turnout and the highest number of sales of artwork in auction history.

The pieces that didn't get any bids and are still available are listed on their website and will be sold at their starting bidding price.

There is available work by Jim Goldberg, Paula Crawford, Emily Hall, Carlton Newton, Richard Roth, Amy Gartrell, Tom Texas Holmes, Fritz Welch, Laurel Farrin, Jason Gubbiotti, James Hilleary, Madeleine Keesing, David Kohan, Carroll Sockwell, Nancy Blum, Myron Helfgott, Paul Ryan, Diego Sanchez, R.M. Fischer, George Herms, Marcus Lutyens, Trevor Amery, Michael Fitts, Marie Ringwald, Anne Slaughter, and Betsy Stewart.

Secrets on the air

That spectacular success story known as Frank Warren will be on the Kojo Nmandi show today on WAMU 88.5 to discuss his amazing PostSecret project.

Tomorrow, there will be a special one day only PostSecret event at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Warren will have a couple hundred postcards on display, most, never before seen, He will also be talking about the project and signing books. The are also going to try to get the new PostSecret DVD playing.

Update: Listen to Warren on the air here.

Chawky Frenn Opening

The professor opened his third solo exhibition with us to packed crowds this last Friday who came to see Frenn's latest. Below is the main gallery wall just before the opening:


Frenn is not an easy artist to sell because his work is so visceral in nature, and without an ounce of irony. In fact, in the three solo exhibitions that he has had with us, every single painting that has sold, has been acquired by either collectors from Europe or from New York. We've yet to find the Washington, DC collector with the courage to hang work so loaded with political or social commentary.


And Frenn, and his difficult work, is a perfect example of the many different parts that go into running an independent fine arts gallery with a focus and cultural dialogue that is serious and committed to developing both presence and substance.


He certainly packs the gallery with visitors, and it is obvious that his students adore him as a teacher, and the critical press has been all over him in the last few years, but it takes a special collector to hang work that is presented by a master painter who revels in delivering difficult subjects and harsh topic after harsh topic.



The New York Times once wrote that "Chawky Frenn is a painter who has nailed down the figurative mode, and this accomplishment gives him the license to convey anything he wants, including the grand theme: the elusive meaning of human existence."


The Washington Post wrote that his work "is most effective, however, not when it's taking rather obvious swipes at American imperialism... but when it's making subtler hints about xenophobia, homophobia, racism, sexism and other tools of oppression."


The show runs through March 8, 2006.

Snowbound

For a long time it looked like it wasn't going to stick, but it kept falling and falling and last night it looked like this:

And this morning is pretty deep out there; this is the view from my second floor window and looking out towards the front of the house:


And now a couple of things for sure:

- Althought the Soviet Socialist Republic of Montgomery County is the highest taxed county in the United States of America, and property taxes went up 69% last year, and Kommissar Duncan's appetite for more taxes continues to be legendary, my street will probably never be cleaned. I can only recall one time that it was actually cleaned, and then it was by the third or fourth day.

- One reason for that may be because at some point today, one of my neighbors will attempt to leave the cul-de-sac where we all live, and get his or her car stuck in the slight uphill, forever blocking any exodus for the rest of us, or any entry to any snow-cleaning truck that may actually get lost and wander into our street to clean it. This has happened every single year that I have lived here. I haven't been outside yet, but I bet that there's a stalled, stuck car out there already.

Buy What You Love

Art Addict has a great tip on what art to buy; and I agree with her.

Read it here.

Reviews

Kriston Capps on Fusebox's last show.

Jeffry Cudlin on Ian Whitmore at Fusebox.

Jeffry Cudlin on Heike Baranowsky at G Fine Art.

Louis Jacobson on Vesna Pavlovic at Fusebox.

Mark Jenkins on Remembering Marc and Komei at the Katzen.

Louis Jacobson on Madame Yevonde at Kathleen Ewing Gallery.

Louis Jacobson on Jason Zimmerman at Irvine Contemporary.

Rachel Beckman on Jason Zimmerman at Irvine Contemporary.

Joe Dempsey on Maria Leontovitsch Manley at Alla Rogers Gallery.

Jessica Dawson on "What Sound Does a Color Make?" at UMBC.

Michael O'Sullivan on Appropriately: Five Artists Exploring Humor at the University of Maryland's Union Gallery.

Michael O'Sullivan on Assimilation/Dissolution at Gallery at Flashpoint.

JT Kirkland's Northern Virginia Gallery Round-Up.

JT Kirkland's 14th Street Galleries Round-Up.

Alexandra Silverthorne on Whippersnappers at Connor Contemporary.

Robin Tierney on Cupidity at Neptune Gallery.

Nigerian Art Scam

In the past I have discussed a little bit about the very convincing Internet scam that seems to address a lot of art from artists and art galleries. A few years ago (when this scam was very new) we came really close to losing a lot of money, but luckily (and only after we really pressed our bank for assistance) did we avoid it.

We still get 2-3 emails a week from the scammers.

Can You Picture That (which is a new DC Blog and has been added to the Blogroll) has a good tutorial of how the scam works.

All gallerists and artists should definately review this posting.

Visit Can You Picture That often!

WWIII

I think that the Right Reverend Bailey is trying to start World War III. Read it all here and start stashing up water and toilet paper.

He also seems to have his own wiretapping surveillance program going, as his Top Ten List of Art Bloggers indicates!

Borf in the hoosegow

DCist first and then the WaPo report that Borf will be doing 30 days in a DC jail.

The teenage graffiti vandal known as Borf got tagged yesterday -- with 30 days in the D.C. jail and a dressing-down that no one in the courtroom will soon forget.

Borf, aka John Tsombikos, chose not to address the judge who was deciding his fate. But D.C. Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz had a lot to say to the young anarchist from Northern Virginia. She didn't paint a pretty picture.

"You profess to despise rich people," she said. "You profess to despise the faceless, nameless forms of government that oppress. That's what you've become. That's what you are. You're a rich kid who comes into Washington and defaces property because you feel like it. It's not fair. It's not right."

And the judge keeps on...

The 30-day jail term is just the start. If Tsombikos breaks the law again within the next three years, he could be jailed for the 17 suspended months of his sentence. Regardless, he has to complete 200 hours of community service, including 80 hours of cleaning up graffiti. And he must pay $12,000 in restitution, money that better not come out of his parents' bank accounts, the judge said.

"In other words," she said, "not the bogus jobs that your father gives you in New York . . . a real job, going to work like the people you demean, earning it with paychecks and the sweat of your own brow."

But it was the prospect of a month at the jail that most worried Madden, who had asked for probation and pleaded with the judge to at least send Tsombikos to a halfway house.

She wouldn't budge, and she made it clear why.

"I want him to see what the inside of the D.C. jail looks like," she said, "because unlike every other person you've seen in my courtroom this morning, who have a ninth-grade education, who are drug-addicted, who have had childhoods the likes of which you could not conceive, you come from privilege and opportunity and seem to think that the whole world is just like McLean and just like East 68th Street."

"Well," she said, "it's not."

The prospect of seeing what the inside of a DC jail looks like is a terrible visual to me; it will be eye-opening to see what this month will do to Mr. Tsombikos' future.

There's also a firestorm of comments going on at DCist; read them and add your comment here.

Irvine to move to Fusebox's space

According to Jonathan Padget in the WaPo, Irvine Contemporary will be moving into the space being vacated by Fusebox Gallery.

Because they were first in the area, and rightfully so, Fusebox had a sweetheart of a deal on the rent of that space. I suspect that the landlord will now want a lot more samolians for the space, and thus making Irvine's position a tougher one to negotiate.

If they can close a deal, it will be a terrific move for Irvine; fingers crossed!

Closing Interface

Tomorrow is the second Friday of the month, and thus time for the Bethesda Art Walk, with 13 participating venues and with free guided tours. Opening hours for the receptions are from 6-9PM.

And today Chawky Frenn is hard at work hanging his very heavy work (Frenn paints on a highly prepared board that weighs tons. This board process he learned under the legendary Gregory Gillespie).

And yesterday we closed the door on Interface: Art & Technology, which became one of our most popular shows ever, and I think will be remembered as the exhibition that planted Claire Watkins as a name to watch over the next few years.

Time to brag.

Not only did all of Watkins' work sell out (including the amazing "Flock of Needles" which has found a new home in Great Falls, Virginia), but we actually now have a wait list for this talented artist.

And yesterday Thomas Edwards' annoying "I Blame You" accusing robotic finger found a home in a Baltimore collection that will also house a Scott Hutchison video and the drawing from which the video was created. And earlier on the week, Kathryn Cornelius' video "Retreat" sold to perhaps DC's best known art collecting couple.

And the show was well reviewed; below is a list of those reviews that have been brought up to my attention:

Washington Post

Washington City Paper by Cudlin

Washington City Paper by Metcalfe

Washington Post Express

Solarize This

InnerBias

Nekkid with a Camera

Shift (Japanese Art Magazine; report by me)

Irish Blood

Parker Dearborn

See you tomorrow at the opening... from 6-9PM.

Student Photogs

The Corcoran College of Art and Design has a Senior Photojournalism Thesis Exhibition opening at the Corcoran Gallery of Art on February 16, 2006, with a reception from 6-8PM. It is open to the public for only four days (from 2/15 through Sunday, 2/19 from 10AM-5PM).

I am particularly looking forwards to seeing Chris Combs' work, which he titles "Inside the Spectrum: A Visual Canvas of Autism."

In Combs' work, the stories of two young men - one seven years old, the other twenty- five, both autistic - and their families, are told through photographs and text.

Update: A DC Art News reader emailed me and tells me that she's already looked at the senior thesis exhibit and adds that another body of works to see is by one photographer named Arianne. According to the email, "she has incredible vision, a great work ethic, humility and integrity. Her project centers around a home for women recovering from drug abuse. Her effort really distinguishes herself from the rest of the class. In fact, I would normally never interject, but I am really moved to help this woman who I think has a great career ahead of her."

Update II: Another DC Art News reader emails me and tells me that "Wendy Galietta's stuff in the show is also quite impressive. She's documenting modern swingers (in the wife-swapping sense, not dancers)."

Opportunity for Artists

Cummings Money for Artists (MFA) has gift certficates to purchase art materials that are being awarded to individual artists in the Washington, DC metro area. The certificates are worth between $50 to $250.

You can apply online at any time, and there are no fees involved. Awards will be made throughout the year. After you submit your application, an example of your work will be posted on the CummingsMFA web site.

Wanna go to a party tonight?

Tapedude Mark Jenkins has new installations at Club Hell on 18th Street. They're having a party tonight starting at 10PM (no cover).

Details here.

I Saw You

Gallery Neptune has an interesting group show opening this coming Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 titled "Cupidity."

Cupidity is based in a sense on the "I Saw You Ads" in the newspapers. Each invited artist created a piece inspired by an ad and then a writer wrote a news ad involving the piece.

The Cupidity artist/writer teams are:
Albert Schweitzer / Katherine Thompson
Alexandra Silverthorne / Heidi Mordhorst
Anna Edholm Davis / Susan Leonardi
Dana Ellyn Kaufman / Charlie Barnett
David Wallace / Mary Kay Zuravleff
Ed Bisese / Levi Asher
Elaine Langerman / Caryn Thurman
Glenn Friedel / Patrick Holway
Greg Ferrand / Bob Angell
Helga Thomson / Rebecca Pope
Jean Beebe / Dennis Greza
Kim Bentley / Katie McCaskey
Kirk Waldroff / Dorian Hamilton
Matt Sesow / Doreen Peri
Mike Janis / Claudia Rousseau
Scott Brooks / Frank Warren
Warren Craghead / Roger Noyes