DCing

Heading back to DC tomorrow.

Unpacking

Moving is such a mess, no matter how well planned! I've calculated that this is my 35th move since I turned 17 and left Brooklyn to join the US Navy a few years ago.

Anyway, the kitchen is nearly set up now.

The new house is great (built in 1961), although it needs some work here and there, like most homes do. My biggest issue is ensuring that water flows away from the house, as this is the most effective way to keep your basements dry and this is very important to me, since I do a lot of work (my studio will be ther), framing, etc.

My previous house in Potomac is still up for sale, although now that I've reduced the price by over $100,000, it's a hell of a good deal and it's getting tons of showing, as it is priced at least $175,000 less than any other house in that neighborhood.

Yesterday I drove to State Street in downtown Media, where the Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union has an amazing little bank that looks like no bank I've ever seen before, it is so nice, open and welcoming, including having a terrific little coffee shop on the entrance with free WiFi!

Media is quite a charming little town, and State Street is really attractive and I look forward to exploring it later.

Just don't ask anyone in town for directions.

Medians must rank amongst the friendliest, nicest people on this planet, and amongst the worst direction-givers that exist on this Universe and all the other infinite Universes that probably exist out there.

At the coffee shop I asked for directions from State Street to Rose Tree Park on Providence Road.

Ten minutes later I was completely confused, as the two nice attendants each gave a different set of directions, further complicated by a customer, as all three argued over the issue of whether Baltimore Pike (also called Baltimore Avenue when in crosses Media) and Route 1 were the same.

Confused I thanked them, and went inside the bank, and asked three people who were waiting around, including the kid whose job is to greet customers as they come in (yes - this bank has a door greeter). He was very nice and told me that he lived near Rose Tree Park.

And then he and the other two began arguing about how to get there.

And so, armed with around six sets of directions, I go on Baltimore Avenue and turned right, which was the wrong way.

By the way, I eventually found my way home, and discovered in the process that both streets on either side of the bank (Baltimore and State itself) run into Providence Road.

When I asked how to get there, someone should have said at the same time that they'd be pointing to State Street through the huge windows: "Follow State Street to the right and it ends on Providence Road."

Maybe that's what they were trying to communicate to me.

All six of them.

Every Curve, Every Dot

The Jerusalem Fund Gallery presents Every Curve, Every Dot, the modern Arabic calligraphy designs of Nihad Dukha from September 8 – October 27, 2006 with an opening reception and artist presentation: Friday, September 8, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Space of Change

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has awarded the District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC) $45,000 over two years to support new Curatorial Initiative program.

And now DCAC opens its third Curatorial Initiative Exhibition, titled "Space of Change" with an Opening Reception on Friday, September 8, 7-9pm and an artists' and curators' talk at 7:30pm.

The show, curated by Claire Huschle, Margaret Boozer and Anne Surak, will introduce the work of five artists: Amy Kaplan, Martin Brief, Justin Rabideau, and the collaborative team of Wendy Weiss and Jay Kreimer.

Factory Work

I'm looking forward to visiting the Brandywine River Museum and seeing "Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat," which opens Sept. 9, 2006.

The exhibition explores the collaboration between Warhol and the these two artists in the 70's and 80's (with Wyeth) and in the 90's with Basquiat.

WPA/C All Members Meeting

1st blog from PA...

The WPA/C is having their first All Members' meeting on September 14, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the auditorium.

Paul Greenhalgh, the new director of the Corcoran will be there to meet the WPA/C members and invites them and see the current show: "redefined: Modern and Contemporary Art form the Collection."

Details here and see ya there!

Packing Out

Today is moving day for me. By tonight I'll be living about two hours away most of the time, although spending a few days a week in the DC area.

Tate in Sculpture Magazine

The current issue of Sculpture Magazine (this Sept-Oct 2006 issue is unfortunaltely not online yet), now available in bookstores all across the country, has a really good review of DC sculptor Tim Tate's last show at Fraser Gallery by Sarah Tanguy, who now runs the Art in Embassies program.

Much like Ron English in the 90's, and with the exception of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Tate's work has been generally ignored by other DC museum curators while at the same time, Tate's groundbreaking marriage of context with glass and mixed media has been acquired by several museums outside of DC and is in the process of "breaking out" from DC.

This continues to re-affirm and add evidence to the unfortunate fact that most of our local museum curators rarely look in their own city for emerging artists and instead rely on their NYC and LA counterparts before taking a chance with a local talent.

Maybe when Sculpture Magazine hits their desks they'll think about taking a cab once in a while to their own backyard instead of taking a cab only to the airport to visit other cities' emerging artists.

This is something for Viso and Greenhalgh to think about.

Update: Read the review online here and here.

The English on English

Brit newspaper The Guardian has an excellent article on former DC area artist Ron English (who now lives in NJ).

English was one of the finalists in the first Trawick Prize, and for years exhibited at MOCA in Georgetown, which is where I first came across his work in the mid 90's (and I reviewed him for some now defunct magazine). Like most DC area artists then and now, his work was generally ignored by DC area museums and curators.

English's career has taken off since he moved closer to NYC, and it is now represented in three continents and the subject of films and books.

Maybe now that New York and London have "discovered" his work, DC area museums and curators will pay attention to it.

Again

Another newspaper discovers that artists are selling artwork online.

Jamie Gumbrecht, writing for the Lexington Herald-Dealer, not only discusses Duane Kaiser's phenomenom, but also highlights Kentucky artist Randel Plowman's version of Kaiserdom: his own "one a day" website, A Collage a Day.

Read the article here (thanks JT).

New blog

Area artist Pamela Miller has a new blog. Visit often.

Uncertainty at the Hirshhorn

A few days ago I received a news release announcing that this fall the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will dedicate the entire second floor of the museum to an exploration of sculpture.

On view from Oct. 26 to Jan. 7, 2007, "The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture" features the works of nine "influential and emerging international sculptors."

This begs the question: can an artist be "emerging" and already be "influential"?

And where does that leave Kathryn Cornelius? After all, according to the WaPo's Chief Art critic, she's only "barely emerging."

The nine emerging sculptors are:

Andrea Cohen (born 1970, American, lives in Brooklyn)
Björn Dahelm (born 1974, German, lives in Berlin)
Isa Genzken's (born 1948, German, lives in Berlin)
Mark Handforth's (born 1966, British, lives in Miami)
Rachel Harrison (born 1966, American, lives in Brooklyn)
Evan Holloway's (born 1967, American, lives in Los Angeles)
Charles Long's (born 1958, American, lives in Los Angeles)
Mindy Shapero's (born 1974, American, lives in Los Angeles)
Franz West (born 1947, Austrian, lives in Vienna)

Each artist will be represented by several pieces, while three of the artists — Rachel Harrison, Evan Holloway and Charles Long — also have been invited to select and create installations of sculptural works from the Hirshhorn's collection in galleries adjacent to the exhibition.

"There is a pronounced psychological dimension to these works, which appear by turns lively and poetic, abundant and controlled, vulnerable and solid, chaotic and composed, ordinary and exceptional," says Associate Curator, the fair Anne Ellegood, organizer of the exhibition.

According to the news release, the exhibition "examines the ways in which the artists respond to the history of modern sculpture and their efforts to create forms inspired by challenging, often elusive concepts. The exhibition propels this exploration firmly into the 21st century with these artists' shared commitment to the study of sculpture as a medium and to creating freestanding, autonomous forms made from a variety of traditional and unexpected materials. Despite their physicality, these sculptures lie somewhere between an object and an idea—offering insight into how sculpture can challenge and expand our understanding of the world around us."

While I applaud that the museum is (finally) looking to bring to light some emerging artists, I wish that Ms. Ellegood would have also at least looked into her own local art scene to try to pick a DC area emerging artist to include in this exhibition.

Perhaps promoting Cornelius from "barely emerging" to "emerging" in the process!

Pennsylvanianing

Today I closed on a new house in PA (always an event somewhat comparable to a root canal), and on the way there I took a van-load of fragile stuff to deliver to the new house, because I don't trust the movers with it.

And in the process I managed to break the glass on the framed Gene Davis charcoal drawing, and drop the framed Vija Celmins drawing, all but destroying the frame, while hoping that the drawing survived.

And I packed the Frank Frazetta oil wrong, and put a dimple on the back of the canvas (but I know how to fix that).

Everything else made it OK, althought I still have no idea (from the last move) where my Ana Mendieta drawing is.

Is that enough name dropping? Oy vey! Still have loads of art to move.

Now I just gotta sell my Potomac house... it has been reduced by $85,000! Buy it here (Mention DC Art News and get a $10,000 discount).

Walter the Ripper?

Crime writer Patricia Cornwell (who I think used to live in Richmond?) will apparently donate 82 works by the artist Walter Sickert to the Fogg Art Museum.

This art collection, worth millions of dollars, was acquired by Cornwell while she was researching and writing Portrait of a Killer.

That book (and the 60 Minutes special) concluded that Sickert was Jack the Ripper.

Cornwell used the visual clues left by Sickert in his paintings to follow a rather convincing trail that led to a very convincing reasoning that deduced that Sickert was the Ripper.

USA Today

Maria Puente at USA Today has a story about artists who are selling their work through blogs and the Internet, and they profile Duane Kaiser.

Puente writes:

"...artist/bloggers such as Keiser are democratizing the art world, using the Internet to change the making and selling of art. Dealers and galleries, who command 50% commissions, no longer have exclusive control in defining who is emerging or successful.

Now artists can sell directly to consumers, using blogs or auction sites at prices more affordable to would-be collectors. The result: More people are making a living as artists, more people are buying art, and more art is selling at a wider spectrum of prices."

Sounds like another blow to art elitists, hey? (Did I sound Canadian?).

And here's my prediction: Sometime in the not too distant future, a major newspaper somewhere (not the WaPo or the WashTimes) will hire a freelance art critic whose job will be to write art reviews of online exhibitions and/or online artists. It may already be happening somewhere (someone let me know), but I wouldn't be surprised to see (for example) a newspaper such as the Washington City Paper start devoting a monthly column to review online art exhibitions or artists - in addition to their current coverage of museum and gallery shows (CP, call me).

Smithsonianing

Two things related to the Smithsonian.

First: At the Smithsonian Institution, they’re working to connect people interested in the art through their online newsletter, Smithsonian Focus. We probably share much of the same audience and I think that DC Art News readers might like to know about upcoming Smithsonian exhibits, events on the National Mall and beyond, exciting online exhibitions, and more. It’s a wonderful resource for anyone who is interested in the arts, science, history, and the world around them. You can check it out here.

Second: A lot of online writing has been done about the Smithsonian, its condition, status, etc. Bailey has an opinion on the subject, and as usual it is... well Bailey. Read it here.

Silverthorne on my last show at Fraser

A while back Alexandra Silverthorne did a cool photoreview of my last exhibition with the Fraser Gallery.

See it here.

And a reader also pointed out to me that the Washington Post had done a small piece on the show as well. See that here.

Another voice

Read this Matthew Langley posting.

Me too!

Me

In the video "Me," artist Ahree Lee began taking daily digital snapshots of her own face in 2001 and did so on a daily basis all through 2004.

In 2004, Lee compiled all of her daily images into a montage set to a musical score, where each second of screen time represents about one week's worth of pictures.

See it here.

International Landscape Show at the Art League

A lot of art critics, because of their perplexing arrogance, would never open their eyes to an All-Landscape show such as the Art League’s annual International Landscape Show has been year after year for as long as I have lived in this area.

And yet the eternal optimist in me, often wonders what would happen were they to set foot in the salon-style packed house that is the Art League’s annual show; hoping that perhaps a little of their elitist armor could be breached, and they would see, what I see.

For the last 13 years or so, I have been visiting this show, and have seen it become international in focus, and have also seen it grow in both size and quality, but the one things that has never changed in my perception of it, is how artists continue to bring forth new visions of what is landscape, or re-invent the perceptions of what others have done before them.

The 2006 version of the International Landscape Show at the Art League was selected by Mark Leithauser, the Senior Curator and Chief of Design at the National Gallery of Art, who selected 178 works of art from 708 entered. The exhibition was sponsored by Donald and Nancy deLanski with the deLaski Family Award, which was given this year to Kim Steinberg. Other award winners were Thomas Dembeck, who won the Risser Award, Christine Lassey, who won the Potomac Valley Watercolorists Award and Nancy Reinke, who won the Washington Society of Landscape Painters Award.

So what did I like?

I was quite taken by Edgar Boshart’s very blue photograph "Sur Surreal", which caught my eye from the moment I set foot in the gallery. As defined in our collective minds by Ansel Adams, this photo is very far from what we conceive in our collective minds as Big Sur, and yet it is such a great new vision of that amazing California area that we accept it as a new and distinct contemporary vision of Big Sur.

I also liked Christine Cardellino’s tiny diptych titled “Landscape with Red Shadows,” and Michelle Cook’s even tinier watercolor “Snowy,” which I feel, in spite of its size, is one of the best watercolors in the show, reflecting the medium’s ability to make great visual record regardless of size.

Andrea Gettings' etching “Como” was also one of my top choices, as was perennial favorite Susan Herron’s “Tilghman Island,” a powerful acrylic painting by one of the best landscape artists in the Mid Atlantic.

Turkish-born painter (and Alexandria resident) Isil Ozisik proudly flexes his artistic muscles and has masterfully reproduced his native city in a wet-on-wet watercolor titled “My City Istanbul,” which is a lesson to watercolor artists who want to know to what extent that most difficult watercolor technique can be used by a master watercolorist not only to deliver technical tricks but also to capture the soul and historical footprint of an ancient and proud city.

I have previously called Jackie Saunders one of the best figurative artists around, and that title comes after years of seeing her amazing watercolors and ink drawings of the nude mode, hundreds, if not thousands of them; I mean, this artist has the nude figure figured out from all angles, and through years of doing them, has perfected her approach and yet has kept it fresh and exciting. And what is Saunders doing in a landscape show? I love it when I am surprised by an artist whom I thought I had figured out. And Saunders surprised me with "Lido Beach, Sarasota," a watercolor of that beach.

I happened to run into Saunders at the Art League while I was there and I quizzed her on the subject matter of the watercolor, which was a really fresh and loose and fun watercolor of beach people. She informed me that for years, when she goes to the beach with her family on vacation, she paints the beaches and its browning people.

Typical uh? The artist goes to the beach and paints the beach, because the beach is there. The watercolor is one of the best in the show, by the way.

Finally, I also liked Pamela Viola’s “North Shore Inlet,” a mixed media piece full of movement and a gorgeous watercolor and gouache by J. Smith titled “Chalmette Oaks,” which was unfortunately vastly overpriced.

The show runs through September 4, 2006.