Taxes: Foul Mood

I can't believe how many Samolians I have to send Uncle Sam by tomorrow, and to make matters worse, this year I'm also sending the Soviet Socialist State of Mary's Land a ton of rubles - in fact almost three times as much as Uncle Sam gets.

Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) seeks Executive Director

Deadline: Tuesday, April 18, 2006

This is quite a LATE announcement on the part of GRACE, with a deadline in just a few days.

The Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE), a well-established non-profit arts organization located in the Reston Town Center, seeks an executive director who will be a highly visible and effective leader able to take the organization to a new level of achievement. GRACE serves the Northern Virginia community through art exhibition and arts learning programs for all ages, including the innovative Art in the Schools (AIS) program and the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival, one of the top ranked fine arts festivals in the United States. For detailed description of GRACE and its programs please visit their website at www.restonarts.org.

The executive director reports directly to the GRACE Board and is responsible for the overall direction and management of the Center overseeing an experienced staff of 4 employees operating with a $600,000 annual budget. The executive director should be a leader with the right combination of education, work experience, and talents to manage GRACE.

The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to lead in a "participative" team environment, to continue building an organization through proactive fundraising activities and community outreach, and to develop and manage within detailed budget. Ideally the candidate should also have an understanding of and appreciation for contemporary arts, progressive responsible management experience, excellent oral and written communication skills, and high degree of comfort working in a dynamic growth oriented organization.

Interested candidates should submit resume and letter of intent no later than April 18, 2006 to:

Greater Reston Arts Center
Search Committee
12001 Market Street Suite 103
Reston, VA 20190

Resumes and letter of intent may also be emailed to director@restonarts.org. No faxes please.

For more info:
Greater Reston Arts Center
t: 703.471.9242 or f: 703.471.0952 or info@restonarts.org

This announcement does not tell a salary range, but I can reveal to you that it's quite a well-paying job.

McNatt on Imboden

The Baltimore Sun's art critic finally takes a trip to Bethesda and reviews the great Connie Imboden exhibition at the new Heineman Myers Gallery.

Read the review here.

This coming Friday

Next Friday is the second Friday of the month and thus it's the Bethesda Art Walk with 13 participating venues and with free guided tours.

We will open "Compelled by Content II", which is an exhibition of contemporary narrative glass curated by Catriona Fraser. This is the second iteration of an annual group exhibition of emerging and established contemporary fine arts glass sculptors from around the nation who use glass as their main medium to convey narrative ideas in a genre generally only associated with bowls and vessels.

The 2005 exhibition established a new footprint and direction for glass, and began the task of pushing it away from pretty, decorative art and towards narrative work with context and meaning. It generated a substantial amount of discussion, both pro and con, which at the last count included over 80 pages of comments on various art websites as well as several reviews in the printed media.

This exhibition brings the focus of the art to a place where it is no longer just about glass, but about artists who use glass in their process to tell stories, discuss events, narrate biographies and make social statements.

The exhibition includes work by Jeanne Brennan, Robin Cass, Mel George, Michael Janis, Carmen Lozar, Syl Mathis, Liz and Lindsey Mears, Michael Rogers, Alison Sigethy and Tim Tate.

An opening reception for the artists, free and open to the public, will be held on Friday, April 14, from 6pm - 9pm as part of the Bethesda Art Walk.

An artists' talk, sponsored by the James Renwick Alliance will take place at the gallery on Saturday, May 20, 2006 at 2PM. The talk is free and open to the public and will also offer an opportunity to learn more about the Renwick Alliance.

In the below piece, titled "Lost" by Carmen Lozar, a damsel in some distress, gently vomits from a pier.

Opportunity for [some] artists

Deadline: May 30, 2006.

For Latino/a, or Hispanic, or Latin American ancestry Artists - The Hispanic AIDS Forum announces an open call for its Estampas de Vida, a juried contest featuring works by Latino/a, or Hispanic, or Latin American ancestry visual artists, celebrating community, health, self-respect and self-esteem.

The winning art will be used to create a series of 10 "estampas" or cards that will be used to promote AIDS/health awareness within the Latino/Hispanic/Latin American ancestry communities.

They invite all Latino/a, or Hispanic, or Latin American ancestry visual artists to get involved with this project and make a difference in the community. There are no fees for submissions.

A total of 10 winners will be selected. Winners will be announced on June 12, 2006 via email and HAF webpage. Each will receive a $200 cash award. For more information and the full prospectus go to: www.hafnyc.org/estampas.

Joe Shannon

An exhibition of one of our area's most influential painters, Joe Shannon: Past and Present opens at Gallery Actaeon with an opening reception, on Sunday April 23, 2006 from 1-5 pm. Joe's gallery is at 21180 Beallsville Road, Dickerson MD. RSVP to 301-349-5858.

What is a Curator?

The University of Maryland’s Union Gallery presents, What is a Curator? A panel discussion on the topic of what it means and can mean to be a curator of contemporary art at the beginning of the 21st century. Tuesday, April 18, 2006, 5-7PM.

The panelists include:
Leigh Conner, Director of Conner Contemporary, Washington, D.C.
Annie Gawlak, Director of G Fine Art, Washington, D.C.
Scott Habes, Director of The Art Gallery, University of Maryland
Andrea Pollan, Director of Curator’s Office, Washington, D.C.
Stewart Watson, Director of Area 405, Baltimore, MD

The panel will be moderated by Jeffry Cudlin, Adjunct Professor of Art and Art Theory at the University of Maryland and art critic for the Washington City Paper.

The panel will be in the Prince George’s Room of the Stamp Student Union. Both the Prince George’s Room and the Union Gallery are located on the first floor of the Stamp Student Union on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park. Admission to the panel is free and open to the public.

Ouch

This is what happens when art bloggers offer political advise: The Right Reverend has a ton of fun with your written words.

Heading back

WIll have loads to post later today...

On the road again

Getting underway later today and heading to the East Stroudburg University of Pennsylvnia for a variety of business stuff.

Will continue to post from PA, so keep reading...

Art Deal of the Week

My pick this week is this almost painterly color digital photograph by American photographer Sandi Croan. She has captured the side of a ship, where the tires (serving as bumpers), have created a painting on the side of the ship's seaborne bulkheads. As a result, at first glance the photo looks like a painting or a watercolor, until closer examination reveal its true details.

It is titled "UMS" and the photograph measures 17.25 x 12.5 inches and then it is matted in a white pH-balanced acid free white museum mat and framed in a black moulding under glass to a framed size of 29x23 inches. Photo is signed by the photographer. The price (including frame): $300. That's an incredible deal for this large photo.

To buy it call 301/718-9651 or email the gallery.

Call for Erotica

Deadline: October 1st, 2006

Erotic Signature has launched the World's Greatest Erotic Art Competition (WGEAC).

With prizes ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 and the opportunity to have your work viewed by the world's leading publishers, curators, artists, academics, collectors, editors, and established masters in the field of erotic art.

This competition will culminate into a coffee table book entitled The World's Greatest Erotic Art of Today. This annual publication will be comprised of each year's 200 WGEAC's winners and all profits from its sale donated to an organization fighting to find a cure for HIV/AIDS.

All entrants are required to submit an entry fee of $45 for the first artwork, another $40 if you submit two and a total of $110 if you submit the maximum entry of three artworks during your initial registration.

Entries can be done via both their website application system online or by mail. Mail-in entries must include payment, CDs and all application forms, and be sent to:

Erotic Signature
P.O. Box 014837
Miami, Florida 33101

Visit www.eroticsignature.com for more details.

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: May 15, 2006

My good friend Philip Brookman, who is the Senior Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Corcoran Gallery of Art will be the juror for the 2006 Photo Review Photography Competition.

The Photo Review, a highly acclaimed critical journal of photography, is sponsoring its 22nd annual photography competition with a difference. Instead of only installing an exhibit that would be seen by a limited number of people, The Photo Review will reproduce accepted entries in its 2006 competition issue. Thus, the accepted photographs will be seen by thousands of people all across the country and entrants will have a tangible benefit from the competition.

Also, the prize-winning photographers will be chosen for an exhibition at the
photography gallery of The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and will be
exhibited on The Photo Review’s website.

Awards include a Microtek i800 scanner, $350 in gift certificates from Calumet Photographic, two Lensbaby 2.0 SLR selective focus lenses with macro kits, two $100 gift certificates from Sprint Systems, a professional level membership in Women in Photography International (worth $235), several Case Envy portfolios from Lost Luggage, and $250 in cash prizes.

An entry fee of $30 for up to three prints, slides, or images on CD and $5 each
for up to two additional images entitles all entrants to a copy of the catalogue. In addition, all entrants will be able to subscribe to The Photo Review for $34, a 20% discount. All entries must be received by mail between May 1 and May 15, 2006.

For a prospectus and details, send a self-addressed, stamped business-size (#10) envelope to:
The Photo Review
140 East Richardson Avenue, Suite 301
Langhorne, PA 19047

The prospectus may also be downloaded from The Photo Review website at www.photoreview.org/compete.htm. For further information call
215/891-0214.

Back from H-M Opening

Just back from the grand opening of the new Heineman Myers Gallery in Bethesda.

Tons of people, including a rare sight: major collectors from Baltimore in a DCish opening. This was a class opening, with uniformed waiters, a beautiful catalog of the exhibition, and the great photography of a proven big name and talented photographer: Connie Imboden (and a magnificent video of how Imboden does her photography on a large screen flat TV).

And also a good warm sight, in seeing all the major gallery owners in Bethesda show up to wish Zoe Myers a warm and auspicious opening. Unfortunately, we also learned that Ozmosis Gallery will soon be closing its doors, and its owner moving to New York in hope of finding greener pastures in the Big Apple.

Pics later...

Openings on 1st Friday

There's a ton of openings tomorrow, being first Friday and all...and most of the Dupont Circle area galleries will have extended hours from 6-8PM. Go see (and buy) some artwork!

And Saturday don't forget to swing by the grand opening of the new Heineman Myers Gallery in Bethesda, just a few minutes from the Bethesda Metro stop.

And also on Saturday, Engineers Without Borders, which is an University of Maryland student group on campus that works with developing communities around the world to improve people's lives through specific projects are hosting an art auction to be held Saturday April, 8th from 5-8pm and Sunday, April 9th 2-4pm. The auction will be held at the Leland Community Center, located at 4301 Willow Lane in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

O'Sullivan on TEXT

The WaPo's art critic Michael O'Sullivan reviews the current Text exhibition at the Greater Reston Arts Center.

Read the review here.

On the Return of Art and Antiquities

You can't pick up a newspaper or visit an art blog these days without running into a story about some country suing an American museum or institution over the return of some artwork or antiquities which may have made their way to the US through either shady means or even forgotten formal agreements.

And now Bloomberg reports that the government of Peru plans to sue Yale University, over hundreds of artifacts taken from the ancient city of Machu Picchu nearly a century ago.

And this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back (or in this case the llama's back).

The artifacts made their way to the US through Yale archeologist Hiram Bingham. One side claims that the artifacts were on loan. Yale contends the artifacts were legally excavated and exported "in line with the practices of the time."

And if these artifacts were sent to the US through some agreement with the Peruvian government nearly a century ago, then Yale has a case for keeping them; otherwise -- in the event that the American archeologists simply found them, crated them and shipped them to the US - all on their own -- then today's courts may well rule in Peru's favor.

And that straw that may break the camel's back may also unlock Pandora's box (which Greece will soon be suing for).

First: let's get one thing clear: Nazi art loot should and must be returned to their original owners or descendants.

But for most of all the other demanding of artwork returns: where does it stop?

Because unless you have some official paperwork signed, stamped and approved (and recognized as valid) then...

Does every Roman artifact in museums around the world have to be returned to Italy? And do Italian museums have to return Roman antiquities that were made in other parts of the Roman Empire to the nations that now exist there? And Italy better start packing the 13 Egyptian obelisks that are all over Rome: Cairo is clearing out some spaces for them.

Every Greek vase back to Greece? But do Greek museums have to return Cypriot antiquities to Cyprus?

Does every mummy have to find its way back to Egypt?

That "official" cadaver of Christopher Columbus in the Havana Cathedral? Sorry... back to Spain; or is it Italy, or Portugal? All three of those nations currently claim him as a native son, although I suspect that the Grand Admiral's descendants, currently living in Spain, have first dibs on Chris' bones.

And the fake Columbus cadaver in the Seville Cathedral? Back to Genoa, even if it's fake (just in case).

After all, that fake Scottish Stone of Destiny has made its way back to Scotland (God only knows where the real one is), but there are probably hundreds of thousands of antiquities (if not millions) from all over the world disseminated... all over the world.

Our own Smithsonian has over 100,000 pre-Columbian antiquities in its inventory (most of which are not even on display). Do the ones that were created by pre-Columbian artisans from north and south of our border have to be returned to the countries that now exist there?

Unless these museums have a provenance with lots of country of origin stamps authorizing the removal of the antiquity, I'd be pretty nervous if I was one of those museums.

And even if you have such a paper, what's to stop today's version of a country's government from saying that they do not recognize the authority of their predecessors to allow the removal of a national treasure from their nation.

And where does it stop?

Frida Kahlo was essentially ignored by Mexico while she was alive, and yet decades after her death she was deified outside of Mexico, and eventually the government of Mexico made her works a national treasure and forbade the export of any of Kahlo's works from Mexico. I think that this is a good (if late) thing for Mexico and Mexicans.

But what's to stop a future Mexican government from demanding the return of any and all Frida Kahlos outside of Mexico back to her mother nation.

It would just be a case of this "return" trend being pushed a little more.

Personally, I think that from now on, when I visit foreign museums, I will be making a list of American Indian artifacts in those museums, and they better damned have a piece of paper somewhere full of stamps and signatures from the Sioux, or the Walla Walla, or the Cheyenne, or the Seminoles or the Oneida or whatever indigenous Native American nation that currenly lives in the USA created them.

Official export paperwork from the United States government is not valid, and will not be accepted, regardless of how many non-Indian Washington, DC officials have signed it.

Of course, that may also mean that every non-Indian museum in the USA itself, would have to return every Native American Indian artifact back to their tribes.

Makes my head hurt...

The show, as a whole, is garbage

So writes JT Kirkland as he trashes what has been called the worst Whitney Biennial of all time.

Kirkland is kinder to some, including Zoe Strauss when he writes:

Zoe Strauss' photos are thought-provoking, quiet, striking and humble. They feel very real... well, because they are.

Unfortunately, in the WB they have a hard time grabbing a viewer's attention... even when shown as a slideshow. One must sit down and just look to get swept up in Strauss' world.

But, while I viewed the show I lost count of the number of people who walked in and out almost immediately looking for the next porn video or loud sound. Speaking of loud sounds... the curators really hurt Strauss' show by allowing the incredibly loud noises from neighboring installations to creep into her space.

Strauss' work is more enjoyable when in silence. But silence allows thought and the curators couldn't have that. Funny thing is that Strauss' work stood up to the noise and certainly could have handled silence.

Read Kirkland's review here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: April 15, 2006

unRappahannock County, Virginia is a juried exhibition of themes and visions contrary to the scenic, small town, and natural settings of Rappahannock County, VA. The gallery is looking for work that captures visions of urban sprawl, waste, pollution, traffic, mass culture, etc.

Open to artists living in DC, MD, PA, VA, and WV.

Jurors: Jane Livingston, who is a well-known independent author and curator living in Rappahannock County and Chris Johns, Editor in Chief of National Geographic Magazine.

Size Limit: No larger than 42" in length or width. No 3D works or prints (monoprints & photos accepted). Work must have been created within the last two years.

Prizes: $600 in cash awards. 30% commission to gallery.

Dates: Show June 2 - July 2.

Entry Fee: $25/1-3 slides labeled with name, title, medium, dimensions.

Send slides and application fee to:

Middle Street Gallery
P.O. Box 341,
Washington, VA 22747

Include SASE for return of slides. Info at 540-675-3440.

Irvine's new space

Martin tells me that it's all done and that Irvine Contemporary has signed the lease for Fusebox's old space at 1412 14th Street, NW.

And the fair Heather sent me the below pic showing the new space entrance.

They will be moving in May 1st, and having a kickoff party on May 12th.

This coming Friday Irvine will be hosting Susan Jamison & Robert Mellor’s solo exhibitions and the farewell to their old space.