Best Bets

The Washington Post has announced the winners of their 2006 "Best Bets" and they can be seen online here.

As it has been the case for the past four years, there was not a gallery category to vote for, although some of the other categories were quite diverse, shall we say.

If you don't get it, you don't get it.

Cleaning House

Or I should really say: "Cleaning the studio," as DC area artist Chris Goodwin has decided to start from scratch and is offering on Ebay "a buttload of paintings" for one price in order to clear his studio of work and previous influences.

See then here.

Tube Link

While I was gone in Norfolk, the NBC4 story on DC Art News and me was shown on Channel 4 News.

You can see the video online here. Welcome to all the new visitors!

Opportunity for Photographers

Deadline: September 30, 2006

Richmond's Gallery of Art & Design has a call for photographers for Colors of Life, a photography competition open to national and international photographers.

Prospectus and details here or call the gallery at 804/355-0102.

In Norfolk

I'm in Virginia Beach; heading back home tomorrow.

9/11 Artwork

Thinking About Art and others have been discussing the interesting issue of "art that responds to Sept. 11."

I raise my hand and say that the work of New Yorker David FeBland responded directly to 9/11 because David's work essentially is all about New York as widely discussed in his many reviews both here and abroad.


David is a non-stop painter, and his work on 9/11 was about NYC as it is every other day.

Because his daily vocation is to paint New York, and New Yorkers and events that he observes in NYC, on 9/11 he he climbed to the roof of his studio building and painted the NYC landscape that he saw from his rooftop, and later that day, as he and thousands escaped the island via the ferry, he quickly sketched his fellow New Yorkers and later he painted the people on the ferry. And a year later he came back to the ferry and painted Afterlife.

On the days immediately after 9/11 he painted the people working in and around Ground Zero, such as the workers who were volunteering as food service workers to the construction guys clearing the area, and the construction volunteers who came from all over the country to help.

So in essence a New Yorker, painting New York, as he does every day, recorded 9/11 as any other event that he would do, about NYC on that day.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: Now!

The Lorton Arts Foundation has issued an open call for a judged exhibition of fine art titled "A New Palette For The Workhouse," in celebration of the transformation of the Occoquan Workhouse at the old Lorton Prison into a terrific regional cultural arts center.

This is a judged show, not a juried show, so all work will be hung. I repeat: ALL WORK will be hung.

The following prize money will be awarded: Best in Show, $500, two Equal Merits of $200 each, and a People's Choice of $100, plus non-monetary Honorable Mentions.

The exhibition will run from Sept. 8 to Nov. 3, 2006 at the University of Phoenix in Reston, Virginia. All artwork must be delivered on Sept. 8, 2006.

All show details and entry forms can be downloaded from the Lorton Arts Foundation website. If you have any questions please call Marti Kirkpatrick at (301) 349-0806.

On the tube - part II

Busy all day today.

And because of the events that almost happened today, the DC Arts News and my profile that was scheduled to air today was rightly so delayed and now will be on at NBC on Friday, August 11, 2006. I am told that it will air at 4PM and that it can also be seen online at nbc4.com.

And let us all give thanks to those both here and abroad whose hard work once again defeated the barbarism of those with mass murder as their objective.

On the tube

DC Arts News and its author will be profiled at NBC tomorrow. I am told that it will air at 4PM and that it can also be seen online at nbc4.com.

July painters

Since 2003 DC area artist Dana Ellyn has been doing a project called "31 Days in July," where she creates one new painting every day in July in response to the daily news - capturing each day of the month in a total of 31 unique paintings.

And also since 2003 DC area artist Matt Sesow has been doing a project also called "31 Days in July," where he creates his own one new painting every day in July in response to the daily news - capturing each day of the month in a total of his own 31 unique paintings.

See Dana's work here and Matt's work here.

Opportunity for Still Life Artists

Deadline: Nov. 1, 2006

The Richeson School of Art & Gallery (a division of major art manufacturer Jack Richeson & Co.) announces its first semi-annual visual arts competition/exhibit!

Over $10,000 worth of prizes. Subject matter for this competition is limited to Still Life (future competitions will focus on other genres). All 2-D original art (except photography) is eligible. Full details and entry form are online at www.richesonart.com.

Contact information:

Richeson School of Art & Gallery
557 Marcella St.
P.O. Box160
Kimberly, WI 54136-0160
Phone: 920-738-0744 or 800-233-2404

Day Painters

First there was Duane Kaiser with his one-a-day paintings, and we all know what a spectacular success he has enjoyed since.

And now DC area artist Josh Smithson has taken the daily brush to a painting-a-day task and begun a daily painting regime. See his work here.

A Great Gray Lady Sunk

Unless you consider the drama of the event as some sort of mega performance, this has little to do with the visual arts as we understand it (I think), but here it is nonetheless, as it packs some pretty powerful visuals for me:

I got this from an old Navy friend:

"Ex-USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3) was sunk by USS Mobile Bay as part of a Navy exercise. They fired the first Harpoon at her yesterday and today EOD (Navy Seals) set off bombs. It only took an hour after that, but previously she had been taking hits all day yesterday from the other ships.... she just wouldn't sink.


She wasn't designed to sink.


She was designed to fight, to stay afloat, and carry her crew through the perils of enemy hostilities. How confusing the last moments must have been for this great lady to have the guns of those she once held so dear be the ones which fired the fatal blows that would carry her to the depths of darkness.

May she rest in peace, and may all those who served upon her feel her presence with each misty spray of ocean breeze. Farewell USS BELLEAU WOOD (LHA-3)."

Vote

Channel 9's A-List is a local contest where the public votes and determine the Washington D.C. area's best local businesses. More than 900 businesses within the DC area have been nominated so far.

So far only four art galleries and one wall decor venue have been nominated. See them here.

Anyone can nominate a gallery here. Unless you are part of the state of Louisiana or city of Chicago multiple-voting dispensations, please only vote once.

I'll let you know which gallery gathers the most votes once the public decides (provided that some secret Channel 9 vote doesn't change the tally).

Statuary Controversy

I couple of days ago I was listening to WTOP News, which like all other radio and TV stations in our area (with the posssible exception of WAMU) rarely if ever, reports on anything dealing with the visual arts, although they do an excellent job delivering free publicity and reports for movies, concerts and theatre. Like nearly all of our main media outlets, WTOP probably believes that their listening public does not care about our area gallery shows as much as they do about who is playing next at Blues Alley.

Anyway, they had a story on a controversy surrounding the Statuary Hall sculpture selection process to add two new sculptures of prominent Washingtonians that could be displayed in the United States Capitol's Statuary Hall, where every state in the Union is represented by two statues of prominent people from the state's past. The District of Columbia is not represented by anyone, and so the DC public was apparently invited to vote as to which prominent Washingtonians should be added to the collection.

Residents cast around 3,000 votes based on the following criteria: "The person must have a record of distinguished service to the city; must be a U.S. citizen; and must be deceased."

Frederick Douglass, the former slave-turned-newspaper publisher received the most votes (311) and musician Duke Ellington (238 votes) came in second. Both men were also on a list of recommendations made by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities steering committee.

This is where the controversy apparently starts.

According to WTOP News:

A selection committee created by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities made their own recommendations, and the commission had the final say in the selection.

And

Minutes from a May 2006 meeting reveal the commissioners were unanimous in the first choice of Frederick Douglass, the former slave-turned-newspaper publisher.

But...

...the minutes from the May meeting show the commissioners could not decide on the second choice, and delayed the vote for one month.

Prior to adjourning, commissioner Gail Berry West made a motion to add Pierre L'Enfant to the list of finalists.

L'Enfant came in 10th in the public voting, with 107 votes -- well behind Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall and Benjamin Banneker, but 16 votes ahead Mayor Washington.

When the commission reconvened in June, they made a rare move of taking the remaining votes by secret ballot.

Commission Chair Dorothy McSweeny told WTOP she couldn't recall the last time the commission voted in secret, but added she supported the move.

Mayor Tony Williams has said he was "disappointed" with the selection of L'Enfant. In a written statement, Williams' spokesperson Vince Morris tells WTOP:

The mayor has already made it clear that L'Enfant was not his top choice. While it's important for boards and commissions to operate independently, the mayor also likes to see decisions made that reflect popular opinion.

Another problem with the L'Enfant choice is his nationality. One of the requirements to be selected was U.S. citizenship. Technically, the French-born L'Enfant was not a U.S. citizen.

It will be interesting to see which two Washingtonians actually end up in the Hall, and even more interesting to see (in the event that one of them is L'Enfant), what he looks like, since as far as we know, and if I recall correctly, there's some controversy as to what he truly looked like.

Friday!

Nu... so it's Friday and it's not broiling out there, and there are some truly good gallery shows that we can enjoy between 6-8PM tonight. For a good recommendation, DCist's Heather Goss has a good sampling here.

This Friday will be remembered as the one gallery Friday to explore new talent, and this is as good as it gets for beginning collectors to gather their sheckels and if they see something that they like either at Conner, Irvine and Project 4, to snap it, as they all have shows focusing on either recent art school grads, current students or MFA grads.

I've been driving up and down I-95 like a million times this last few weeks looking for a house around Swarthmore, PA, and I think that I may have finally found one or two that I sorta like, while managing to avoid the fact that most houses in that town are usually 95 years (or more) old, and I'm not a very good DIY type.

Meanwhile my Maryland house is for sale, and I've just reduced it today by $50K so that it's a great deal and will hopefully sell quickly! The realtor made me take down a lot of the artwork from the walls, as it "makes the house look bigger." She wanted it all down, but I refused, as I think that it makes the home look more appealing! Buy the house here

Go see some galleries tonight!

See ya there!

Penis artist

While I was over at Reuters checking out the Mark Jenkins story, I came across this "artist" who paints with his penis.

I suspect that dickilism (or as it is called in the UK: willyism) may be simply the latest ridiculous effort created in order to stand out in an art world often dominated by gimmick. It worked for Chris Offili, Damien Hirst and many others... so why not for Pricasso (whose real name is Tim Patch).

And in case you were wondering... yes, there's already a guy who paints with his asshole.

Update: And in case you were wondering part two... yes the a guy who paints with his asshole once exhibited in Washington, DC (many years ago) - It was painting (geez) titled "Rectal Realism" and the piece was in fact a portrait of Andy Warhol.

Ahhh... the good ole days...

Tapedude in Reuters

The news agency Reuters has a really cool video story about DC's own tapedude artist Mark Jenkins.

See it here.

Mark Jenkins continues to gather spectacular international coverage and attention to his work, granted from a street art perspective (and an unique one at that), and yet our local museum curators seem to be asleep at the wheel and driving right past him at the same time that he's the subject of major magazine coverage in Europe and now this story.

Wake up!

Art Dealers of the World: Unite!

Well... at least the ones that are DC art dealers around the 14th Street area.

The CP's Nell Boeschenstein has an excellent story on a movement by six art dealers around the 14th Street area to gather some momentum and start some sort of organization.

There is currently an Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington, but as Nell Boeschenstein points out, it might as well not exist.

I know that Bethesda art dealers (well, the ones that are real art dealers anyway) are also thinking of gathering together under their own art dealers' organization, due to the same concerns expressed by the dealers quoted in Nell Boeschenstein's story.

And the Dupont Circle area dealers are probably thinking the same thing, as the Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington has been pretty moribund for the last few years.

Opportunity for Maryland Artists

The Baltimore Museum of Art in collaboration with the Maryland State Arts Council just announced siteMaryland, a month-long juried exhibition of art by leading contemporary artists living and working in Maryland. Details here.

Designed to change venues yearly, this year’s project (opening October 1) will take as its site the grounds of the museum, where artists are invited to rethink and reinvent the exterior spaces of the facility.

Adjacent to the Johns Hopkins University campus, the BMA boasts a blend of contemporary and neoclassical architecture, a renowned sculpture garden, and a dramatic stepped entrance along Art Museum Drive.

Applicants are encouraged to visit the museum and develop ideas for the site.

Submissions must include a written description of the concept and images of recent work. Awards ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 will be granted as needed for materials.

Applications must be received no later than August 18, 2006.

Please mail your submissions and a SASE to:

siteMaryland
Baltimore Museum of Art
10 Art Museum Drive
Baltimore, MD 21218

Or e-mail siteMaryland@artbma.org for more details.