Wyeths

Went to the Brandywine Museum to see Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat and will be writing a review for a couple of newspapers and also a review here. Stay tuned.

While there I was lucky enough to run into the fair Victoria Wyeth, grandaughter of Andrew and niece of Jamie, who gave us all a terrific tour of the museum with a lot of great personal insights into the Wyeth family.

Black Artists of DC

Black Artists of DC (BADC) is a community of artists formed in 1999 whose purpose is to "promote, develop and validate the cultural and artistic expressions of artists of African ancestry in the Washington, DC metropolitan area."

The exhibit "Convergence of Vision: The Power of Art," showing at the Prince George's Community College's (PGCC) Marlborough Gallery from September 18th through October 12th will be the group's first showing at a public venue and will feature the work of 34 of the group's artists.

"As a group, BADC seeks to engage and educate our community in the history and value of Black art," says Claudia Gibson-Hunter, BADC facilitator. "There is such a wealth of artistic talent in the Washington metropolitan area, and we want to expose our community to the hidden treasures they have right in their own backyards."

Details here.

Bummer

No Artomatic this year. The NOMA building that they were negotiating for has not come through, despite their best efforts. The AOM crew is working hard to make AOM happen in 2007.

Detail here.

Trashball

Chris Goodwin has started a blog called Trashball! that documents some of the stuff that he finds (much of it in his PT job driving a dump truck). Much of the trash that he finds will end up in one of his two Trashball! machines: One is currently at Warehouse on 7th Street and the other at Busboys and Poets on 14th street in DC.

Visit Trashball! often!

Survey

The Indianapolis Museum of Art announced today that it is planning the first full-scale survey of the critically acclaimed Afro-Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons.

New Baltimore Studios

A dozen artists or so have been renovating around 24,000 feet of the former Lombard Office Furniture spaces located at 122 West North Avenue (at Howard Street) just across the Howard Street bridge from MICA in Baltimore.

They're having their first event on Saturday, January 28th from noon to 4:00pm. RSVP to Daniel Stuelpnagel at danstuelpnagel@yahoo.com or call him at 415/203-7739.

Gordiany's Grille

A couple of nights ago I went out to a Widener University function, and afterwards we drove around looking for a place to eat.

We drove down Baltimore Pike, and eventually ended up in a little restaurant in Clifton Heights, PA called Gordiany's Grille.

Let me summarize this find in one word: WOW!

We expected to find a small, local place, with maybe some decent food. Located at 252 West Baltimore Avenue in Clifton Heights, PA, the place looks nice from the outside, but unassuming and like a regular neighborhood joint.

It is all that, but the food was amazing!

The chef is a beefy guy nicknamed "Zus" - "It's from Hay-Sus," explained Kelly the waitress. "It's Spanish for Jesus."

And the food was divine! And so affordable!

Imagine a place where you can can a huge plate of clams in a wine and onion and Italian sausage concoction for under nine bucks (and I mean huge). It's called "Drunken Clams" and it was great.

The table next to me ordered a steak, and Jesus came out with a slab of meat on a board to discuss how she wanted it cut with the lady who ordered it. They settled on a "butterfly" cut.

When the pasta dish that we ordered came to us, it brough "ooohs" and "aaahs" from the locals at the place, as it was a sight to see, as the crab legs had been arranged is such a fashion that the huge plate looked like a work of edible art.

Unlike the ritzy places that give you three strands of pasta, this dish was also massive, and I ended up taking half of it home.

This was a truly memorable discovery, everything on the meny is under $20, and I look forward to visiting this little jewel many times. They are located at 252 West Baltimore Avenue in Clifton Heights, PA, and their phone is 610/259-4060.

Stephen Wiltshire

I was first exposed to the amazing skills of Stephen Wiltshire when I was living in the United Kingdom in the late 80's.

His first words were "pencil" and "paper," first spoken when he was five. He is called "the living camera."

But this video is amazing.

Tonite: Sandberg at Conner

This week is shaping out to be an extraordinary week to see the best that contemporary painting has to offer to the DC region.

In addition to Robin Rose at Hemphill, and Manon Cleary at Edison Place Gallery, and the New Leipzig Painters at the Katzen Arts Center, and New York's David FeBland at Fraser Gallery (which is selling out as usual), tonight Conner Contemporary Art hosts the opening for Erik Sandberg's newest solo, titled Contrary.

Just like Cleary and Rose are easily some of the best DC area painters of their generation, Sandberg - in my opinion - is amongst the best Washington area painters of his generation. Buy Erik Sandberg now.

The opening night reception is tonight, Friday, September 15th from 6-8pm.

Saturday: 14th Street Galleries

The Galleries of the 14th Street Arts Corridor in Washington, DC launch the Fall Art Season with joint receptions on Saturday, September 16.

Who: Adamson Gallery, Curator’s Office, G Fine Art, Hemphill, Irvine Contemporary, Gallery plan b, Transformer, and Street Scenes: Art Not Ads (a Welmoed Laanstra public art project).

What: Joint Receptions to launch the fall season

When: Saturday, September 16, 6-9 PM

Exchange

Tomorrow is the WPA/C's EXCHANGE: DC @ Baltimore opening at the Creative Alliance (3134 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD). The opening is from 7 – 9pm. Curated by Gabriel Martinez.

Features work by Trawick Prize finalists Molly Springfield and Jason Zimmerman as well as Breck Brunson, Avi Gupta, Nilay Lawson, Carrie Mallory, Isabel Manalo, Piero Passacantando, Solomon Sanchez, and my good friend and former Georgetown neighbor Rocky Wang.

Congratulations

To former Trawick Prize winner Jiha Moon, who was included in the New York Times review of the "One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now" group show at the Asia Society in New York City.

Read the Roberta Smith review here.

From the Reverend's files

"After pickled sheep, unmade beds and painting with elephant dung, some questioned where modern art could go next.

Kira O'Reilly will provide her own answer today by spending four hours naked, hugging a dead pig - at the taxpayer's expense.

The controversial Irish performance artist will invite one person at a time to watch her sit in a specially-constructed set and perform a 'crushing slow dance' with the carcass in her arms."

Details here.

Manon Cleary Tonight

Tonight, from 6-8PM, is the opening for the Manon Cleary retrospective at the Edison Place Gallery located at 701 9th Street, NW (enter from 8th and G).

Without a doubt the leading realist painter in the Greater Washington region, and made nationally famous by HBO a few years ago, Cleary's retrospective is long overdue and it's a huge black mark on the conscience of DC area museums and curators.

At the Corcoran Tonight

The WPA/C is having their first All Members' meeting tonight 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.

Thank you!

To the artists who sent me art as a birthday present! WOW! I was only kidding serious!

And in return I will send all of you a piece of artwork for your walls!

Robin Rose at Hemphill

Robin Rose, one of the District's most influential painters, opens this Saturday, Sept. 16 at Hemphill Fine Arts. This will be Rose's first solo at Hemphill since he switched galleries from Numark Gallery, where he used to exhibit in prior years. The opening reception for Rose is Saturday, September 16, 2006 from 6:30 - 8:30 PM.

This is shaping like the week to see two of the District's giants of paintings, as Manon Cleary, easily one of the most technically gifted and creative painters that I have seen in all my years of looking at the visual arts, also opens this week, in her case Cleary opens on Thursday at Edison Place Gallery.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: September 22, 2006

The Arts Council of Fairfax County announces Arts Council @ GRACE, a juried art exhibition offering $2,000 in prize monies.

This year’s exhibition will mark a first time collaboration with the regional visual art center GRACE in Reston, VA. Artists from DC, MD, or VA are encouraged to apply. Artists working in any media can submit up to four (4) images on CD, or video totaling no more than five (5) minutes on DVD.

Juror: Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen. Cash prizes totaling $2000. Entry Fee: $35 (waived for Arts Council and GRACE members). Exhibition will take place November 3 – December 1, 2006.

Information is available on their at website at www.artsfairfax.org or contact Angela Jerardi, Visual Arts Coordinator at ajerardi@artsfairfax.org.

Art Narratives

WOW! Check out the kind of artwork presentation that Paradise Studios has done for Bailey.

It's about 2MBytes - Click here.

Gopnikisms

"One of the things that drive me crazy is that there's this notion, especially among younger artists, that to make serious art some woman has to get naked. I see it in performance art all the time."

- Blake Gopnik

UPDATE(s):
1. Capps polices Gopnik here.
2. Bailey... ah "Baileys" Gopnik here.